
lV-A\T!^' 



AND IIM 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Cliap Copyright No. _;_ \ - 

UNITED STATES X)F AMERICA. ' 



DEATH 



AND THE 



FUTURE STATE 



BY 

S. H. SPENCER 

Editor of u The New Christianity" 
Ithaca, N. Y. 



THE SWEDENBORG PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

GERMANTOWN, PA. 
1900. 



78106 



Library of Concire«a 

Two Copies Re*tiv€0 

NOV 20 1900 

Col ♦••■jj(r a tftiry 

SECOND COPY 

Def'VvKK 5 ' tO 

ORDtH DIVISION 

NOV 2 3 1900 






Copyright 
By THE SWEDENBORG PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, 

19 00. 



WM F. FELL & CO., 

ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTER8 

PHILADELPHIA. 



TO THE DOUBTING, THE SORROWING, 
AND THE TRUTH-LOVING. 



'AT EVENTIME THERE SHALL BE 
LIGHT." 



Her quiet hands are folded 

Over the quiet breast, 
And over the silent features 

Hovers a dream of rest ; 

For the angels kissed her forehead 

And touched her heart last night, 
And closed her eyes so gently; 

And at eventime there was light. 

Weary with pain and labor, 

And the toil of the day that was done, 
She came unto life's still evening, 

And gazed on life's setting sun. 

And the evening of life stole softly 

And darkly over her sight; 
But the face of God shone through the gloaming, 

And at eventime there was light. 

Adolph Roeder. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction, 1 

I. — Death and Resurrection, 6 

II. — Judgment, Preparatory Schools, In- 
terior Companionship, 15 

III.— Vastation, 25 

IV. — Hell and Its Duration, 38 

V. — Life in Heaven, 56 

VI. — Life in Heaven (Continued), .... 70 

VII.— Sex and Marriage in Heaven, ... 88 

VIII.— Children in Heaven, 98 

IX. — The Vision of Joseph, 107 

X. — Light on the Hidden Way, 116 

Appendix, 132 



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♦^t^-^^-i-^'S*^ 5 ^-* 



DEATH AND THE FUTURE STATE. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Who is not interested to know the experience 
of a dear friend that has passed inside the gate 
and taken the mysterious voyage all alone? 
All alone ? So it seems. But is he alone ? 
How did death seem to him ? Did he suffer? 
Where and what is he now ? Is he happy ? 

Death and resurrection have been dismal 
words, uttered by men and women of despair- 
ing faces and associated with emblems of 
mourning. Nothing so dismally sad as a funeraL 
Why ? Because the tomb is dismal. Because 
the prevailing idea has been and still is that the 
tomb must hold the dead form until the com- 
ing of an awful Judge, the spirit meanwhile a 
dreamy vapor expectant of eternal bliss or in 
dread of eternal woe ; because heaven is re- 
garded as but an endless religious meeting 
where harps and crowns express before a great 
1 1 



2 Death and the Future State. 

white throne the joy and triumph of salvation 
— a sad and selfish joy ; because the spiritual 
world is conceived of as an unnatural world; 
and the kingdom of heaven as an arbitrary 
kingdom ; because for spontaneity of soul in 
all kinds of useful employments there is thought 
to be the strain of sustained effort in everlasting 
hallelujahs ; or because, the soul of the mourner 
revolting at such a prospect, there is serious 
doubt of another life at all. 

There is a clear and new-risen sunlight to 
dispel these mists, and attractive and satisfying 
is the view which is disclosed. Swedenborg is 
the chief human medium of this sunlight. Not 
only a scientist of recognized eminence, but a 
seer of still greater eminence, and for many 
years an inhabitant of two worlds, he is properly 
regarded as chief. As an inhabitant of two 
worlds he wrote from observation and experi- 
ence, and as a seer he wrote from a mental 
illumination so wonderful as to provoke incred- 
ulity in the worldly and materialistic mind. 
However, this fact is nothing except for the 
enlightenment and quickening of a benighted 
church and world. 

There is much in spiritualistic literature, and 
even in published experiences of people who 



Introduction. 3 

are neither Spiritists nor Swedenborgians, that 
confirms and further illustrates the teachings of 
Swedenborg. Insomuch it is to be welcomed 
even by the New Churchman, who, from read- 
ing Swedenborg exclusively, must have a more 
or less fixed view, lacking that variety and 
fullness which find expression through many 
minds, from many points of view, and from 
relation to new and different cases. 

The New Churchman must remember that 
the spiritual world is not a fixed world, that a 
description of its scenes written over a century 
ago must be very different from a description 
written to-day, even by the same writer. That 
world is in a state of perpetual flux and change, 
according to the states of those through whom 
its phenomena are projected. Without human 
centers through which the One Center of All 
continually creates, it would be a skyless, sun- 
less, earthless blank ; but as those centers pro- 
gress as instruments of the Divine Love and 
AVisdom, that universe is evolved, renewed and 
perfected. The same laws ever control, of course, 
in all spiritual and creative processes ; the same 
attraction into groups remains, and the same 
expressing of inward states by outward corre- 
spondences. But there is no end of new vistas 



4 Death and the Future State. 

and new heavens for the opening soul, and no 
end of filling up or perfecting of outlines 
through additions to heavenly societies. No 
two spirits experience or see exactly the same 
things, even though they be the most congenial 
members of the same society ; and the more 
unlike they are, the more unlike must be the 
phenomena about them, which are objected from 
their interiors. 

No, it is not a fixed world, as a reader of but 
one reporter is apt to think it, but a world liv- 
ing and changing far beyond our conception 
even if we get every possible glimpse of it. 
No seer can report it for all time or for all men, 
however comprehensive and particular his de- 
scriptions ; and any one who expects to find 
death and resurrection and judgment and heaven 
or hell just as Swedenborg has described them 
will wonder exceedingly at the difference of his 
experience and observation from what he had 
expected. 

This is not at all to be understood as derog- 
atory to the mission of the great Swedish seer 
as a servant of God to open the gates of a new 
morning upon a benighted world ; nor is it to 
encourage leaving the writings of an illumined 
yet thoroughly balanced philosopher and scien- 



Introdvction. 5 

tist for the crude products of unculture aud 
superstition which appear in many newspapers 
and books. It is only to be understood as 
encouraging the disposition of those who 
are familiar with the grand outline and par- 
ticular illustrations presented in Swedenborg's 
" Heaven and Hell," and some of his other 
works, to find additional illustrations in the 
testimony of credible and capable witnesses who 
are multiplying about us. 

It is our purpose, in a few chapters, to 
present first the teaching of Swedenborg re- 
specting death, resurrection and the future 
state, and then to illustrate further his teach- 
ing by witnesses of our own day, thus to make 
less rigid and more living and complete the 
view which comes of reading him exclusively. 



*^M?^ 




w 



CHAPTER I. 
DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 

Swedenborg's knowledge of death, resurrec- 
tion and the future state is not merely philosoph- 
ical, but came largely from his own personal 
experience, and from conversations with the de- 
parted in the spiritual world, for many years, 
about the middle of the 18th century. 

In his w r ork entitled " Heaven and Hell," 
published in London in 1758, may be found 
substantially the following description of one of 
his experiences : — 

"I was once brought into a state of insensi- 
bility as to the body, thus nearly into the state 
of dying persons, while yet my interior life 
and the faculty of thought remained entire, 
so that I could perceive and remember what 
transpired, and thus know what it is to die. 

" The respiration of my body was almost 
taken away, that which remained being gentle 
and tacit and perceptibly connected with the 
respiration of my spirit. Then through the 
pulse of my heart communication was opened 
6 



Death and Resurrection. 7 

with the angels of the celestial kingdom, which 
kingdom corresponds to the heart. Angels from 
that kingdom became visible — some at a dis- 
tance, two seated near my head. Their affection 
was so intense as to deprive me of all affection 
proper to myself, but perception and thought 
remained. I was in this state for some hours. 
The spirits (not the celestial angels) then with- 
drew, supposing that I was dead ; for they per- 
ceived an aromatic odor like that of an em- 
balmed corpse. This is perceived when celestial 
angels are present, and spirits cannot endure it. 
Thus evil spirits are prevented from near ap- 
proach to the spirit of man while it is passing 
into the other life. 

" The angels seated near my head were silent, 
only communicating with my thoughts. When 
their thoughts are received (as well as their 
affection), then they know that the spirit of the 
dying one is ready to be drawn forth from the 
body. Their thoughts were communicated to 
me by looking into my face. But they first 
sought to know my thought, for they wish the 
last thought of a dying person to be fixed upon 
eternal life, until he shall return to the thoughts 
proper to his ruling love. 

" It was given me particularly to perceive and 
feel that there was a drawing or pulling out of 
the interiors of my mind, thus of my spirit, from 
my body ; and I was told that thus resurrection 
is 'effected by the Lord." (No. 449.) 



8 Death and the Future State, 

When the body is no longer capable of per- 
forming its functions in the natural world as an 
instrument of the spirit's thoughts and purposes, 
which are from the spiritual world, then a man 
is said to die. The lungs cease to breathe, and 
the heart ceases to beat. But really the man 
does not die : he is only separated from his cor- 
poreal part, which is of no more use to him. 
The man himself lives ; for man is not man by 
virtue of his body, but by virtue of his spirit. 
It is the spirit that loves and thinks, and love 
and thought make the man. The man only 
passes from conscious existence in one world to 
conscious existence in the other. Hence it is 
that death means resurrection. 

A man's thought is connected with this world 
by means of his breathing, and his love or 
affection by means of the motions of his heart ; 
and when the breath and pulsation entirely 
cease, especially the latter, then the separation 
is immediate. The sundering of these two 
bonds leaves the spirit to itself, and the body to 
itself and to coldness and to decomposition. 
Heart and lungs are the two inmost bodily 
means of connection with the spirit, because 
they are the chief or central bodily organs, the 
blood of the heart and the oxygen of the lungs 



Death and Resurrection, 9 

passing from these organs into every part of the 
body. 

The time required for the separation depends 
upon the nature of the disease, but is usually 
two or three days. As long as there is any 
vital heat in the body the separation is not 
complete, for vital heat is produced by the 
spirit's love. 

The spirit of man is a human form, corre- 
sponding to that of the body. It has head and 
feet, trunk and limbs, eyes, ears and nerves. 
These are mind forms and organs, within the 
material body. The spirit senses are sheathed 
in those of the body, in its every part, and it is 
really they and not the bodily senses that see, 
hear, feel, etc. But so gross are these spirit 
senses in most persons, in consequence of merely 
outward exercise of them, as to be entirely 
closed to spiritual perceptions and the things of 
the spiritual world. To all persons, however, 
death is an unveiling, especially to the objects 
of the spiritual world ; and to those who are 
principled in good it is an introduction to a 
clearer perception of spiritual truths and of the 
meaning of eternal life. To some there is an 
occasional unveiling or opening to spiritual- 
world scenes during their earth life, when, like 



10 Death and the Future State. 

a mirage, things and people of the spiritual 
world appear in the most vivid and convincing 
reality. And the people are heard speaking, in 
some cases, and are even touched without any 
appearance of anything of the person's body 
intervening. This state of opened spirit-senses 
is described as one midway between waking and 
sleeping, though the appearance is that the per- 
son is awake. It is the state which the apostle 
Paul describes when, in speaking of " visions 
and revelations," he says : " Whether in the 
body or out of the body I cannot tell ; God 
knoweth." 

To have these visions may not be a proof of 
high spirituality or character in the one having 
them, but may be due to some physical weak- 
ness or derangement. Many have them in the 
hour of death. And yet these visions would 
never have ceased among men, had there been 
no decline in spirituality from the high state of 
the Most Ancient Church. They were quite 
common in the primitive Christian Church, too, 
while yet it was in the simplicity of the Chris- 
tian life.* 

* To people who are not principled firmly in righteous- 
ness and truth, communicating with spirits is attended 
with danger. 



Death and Resurrection. 11 

Swedenborg describes an experience of " being 
carried of the spirit to another place." 

" Walking along the streets of a city, and 
through fields/' he says, " conversing also with 
spirits at the same time, I knew not otherwise 
than that I was awake and seeing as at other 
times. Thus I walked on without mistaking 
the way, being in vision meanwhile, seeing 
groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men and various 
other objects. But after walking thus for 
some hours, I suddenly returned to my bodily 
sight, and discovered that I was in another 
place. ... In such case distance is not 
thought of nor time attended to, nor is there 
any fatigue, and the person is led unerringly 
through ways that he is ignorant of, even to the 
place of his destination." — Heaven and Hell, 
441. 

It reminds one of the words of John in the 
Apocalypse, "And he carried me away in the 
spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed 
me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descend- 
ing out of heaven from God." It must be a 
delightful experience, if we may judge from 
our own sensations while gliding over the 
ground without touching, simply floating along 
in the air, in one of these states between waking 
and sleeping, which one can never forget. No 



12 Death and the Future State. 

event of one's outward or ordinary experience 
can impress itself so vividly or permanently as 
a part of life's experience. Those who have 
passed inside the gate of death and returned 
by recovery, very commonly speak of this ex- 
perience of indescribable lightness and freedom. 

The human spirit also breathes while in the 
material body and afterward, though but few 
since the ancient days of conscious internal res- 
piration are conscious of it while living in the 
body. This internal respiration is not a breath- 
ing of the material atmosphere, but of the 
spiritual — the atmosphere of thought. Indeed 
our word " inspiration " when applied to a 
speaker or writer means the inbreathing of 
divine thought. One's faith is his spiritual 
breath. It animates and sustains him, and he 
breathes it out in thought and words and per- 
sonal sphere. Also one's love is his spiritual 
heart and life, and love never fails. If it is 
love for God as supreme, and for the neighbor 
as one's self, then it is the life of an angel ; if 
it is love of self and the world as supreme, then 
it is the life of a devil. 

Man is a human form as to his spirit, because 
he has the faculty of receiving divine love and 
wisdom, which are the essence and maker of 



Death and Resurrection. 13 

human form. But to be a true or perfect hu- 
man form in one's spirit, he must have this 
faculty developed. 

Immediately after death the spirit's appear- 
ance and expression are about the same as 
belonged to the person while he was in the 
body ; but he enters at once by various attrac- 
tions of spirits, good and evil, into a process 
called " the judgment," and eventually finds his 
place among those of his kind, and then, his 
real character having asserted itself without any 
disguise, he may appear very differently. 

The surroundings, too, are so familiar that it 
is difficult for the resurrected one to believe at 
first that he has changed worlds. All corre- 
spond to his yet scarcely changed state of 
thought and life, for his surroundings in the 
spirit world are but his mental states projected. 
But these will change as he changes. 

Attendants are given for his safe passage 
from the body. These are celestial angels, the 
only ones in heaven who love others more than 
themselves, and whose penetrating perceptions 
make them the most fit to welcome and guard 
the newly risen. And these do not leave him 
until he is inclined to leave them. Then angels 
of the spiritual heaven appear as guides, and give 



14 Death and the Future State. 

him spiritual light. Scale-like coverings fall 
from his eyes, and there is, as it were, a rolling 
off of something from his face, and he is as one 
waking from sleep. Then for natural he re- 
ceives spiritual thought. These angelic guides 
aim to suppress every idea which does not 
savor of love. They tell him that he is a spirit, 
perform all helpful offices, and instruct him 
concerning the things of heavenly life so far as 
he can comprehend them and desires to receive 
the instruction. Here again he may dissociate 
himself, and then good spirits appear with their 
kind offices; but if from all who are good and 
pure he separates himself, then he finds his real 
life and delight among those who are evil and 
impure like himself. 



^^-^^^^^^H^ 



CHAPTER II. 

JUDGMENT, PREPARATORY SCHOOLS, 
INTERIOR COMPANIONSHIP. 

We have briefly followed Swedenborg's de- 
scription of man's passage by death into the 
world of spirits, and of his attendance by angels 
and good spirits, successively, according to his 
wish to remain with or withdraw from them, 
and have seen that in a few days after his 
decease he finds company and continues life 
with such spirits as are in agreement with his 
life as it was on earth. 

He is still in the exteriors of thought and 
life, and therefore has a similar face, tone of 
voice and other personal appearance to what he 
had on earth ; and he is known by friends from 
earth, and knows them in turn. Earth's broken 
ties are reunited, and may for a time remain so. 

But in that world of the yet exterior life is 
what is called the judgment. That world of 
lately deceased spirits is the intermediate depart- 
ment of the spiritual world as a whole. Its 
15 



16 Death and the Future State. 

inhabitants are in the intermediate state between 
heaven and hell, which is a state of inevitable 
preparation for one or the other. There is no 
permanence of abode in it now, since the last 
General Judgment, though some may remain 
for a few years. As soon as the interior and 
real life comes out and the false or conflicting 
exterior is put off, so that the person is extern- 
ally just what he is internally, then the prepara- 
tion for heaven or hell is completed, except that 
those who are to enter heaven must still receive 
the instruction necessary to fit them for the par- 
ticular society in heaven to which they belong. 
So there are two states of the evil after death, 
and three states of the good. 

The time required for this judgment, or this 
development of the real character, varies with 
different individuals. The hypocrite is the 
longest in throwing off* his cloak. His saint- 
like face, voice, bearing and behavior are 
peculiarly persistent because of his habit of 
disposing his interiors in ways to imitate good 
affections. He may be a very amiable person 
for a long time, and not unbeautiful in appear- 
ance ; but when his concealed character does 
come out he is more deformed than others. 

The form of every one after death, and after 



Preparation and Interior Companionship. 17 

his real character develops, is beautiful in the 
degree that he has in the earth-life inwardly 
loved divine truths, — which means, of course, 
that he has outwardly lived them. The pro- 
foundest lovers are in person the most divinely 
radiant. They eat of the bread of life and 
drink of the fountain of youth, and their 
spiritual bodies are made of this food and drink. 
The longer they live in heaven, the more beau- 
tiful and youthful they become. But the lovers 
of evil and its falsities show a deformed and 
decrepit spiritual body, which grows more 
monstrous and more skeleton-like until they 
scarcely resemble human beings. 

With the good there is no desire to conceal; 
but concealment of evil character is not long 
possible after death, because they who have 
risen out of the material body have no longer 
that body for a covering. Only the mental 
habit of concealment remains, and in a body 
which is a mind the habit is a twist that cannot 
long be borne. The mask that remains grows 
too transparent ; the senses of those good spirits 
who are mingled with upon the basis of earthly 
attachments are too acute ; real affinities are too 
quickly and freely found; truth is too searching, 
judgment too thorough and severe. The veryin- 
2 



18 Death and the Future State. 

tention of every evil deed is written within the 
evil spirit as in a book. Good spirits learn to read 
this book, and in their presence the memory of 
the judged one yields up its contents, even from 
infancy, before him. The result is that his life 
stands out in all its nakedness, and he shrinks 
from the pure light, and seeks congenial dark- 
ness in some low and hidden place, whither he 
is drawn by some society in evil genius and 
quality like himself. " I have a number of 
times observed," says Swedenborg, " that cer- 
tain simple good spirits wished to instruct the 
evil in truths and in goodness of life, but that 
the latter fled far away from the proffered in- 
struction ; and when they came to their asso- 
ciates they caught with much pleasure at the 
falsities which agreed with their love." This 
is their judgment, and this is their hell. 

The instruction given to those who are in 
preparation for heaven is such as they earnestly 
desire, and is inspired by the love of that use 
to which each one's genius inclines him. Each 
is already in vital relationship to a heavenly 
society that will receive him with great joy, and 
his place and function in that society waits to 
be filled by him as no other in the universe can 
fill it. Only in that place and function can he 



Preparation and Interior Companionship. 19 

be happy and increase the happiness of others. 
Each instructed one has an object in life which 
to him is life itself, and the instruction received 
is committed immediately to life with that ob- 
ject in view. There is no faith alone or idle 
speculation. 

Multitudes attend these preparatory schools, 
or rather dwell in them, and the schools are or- 
ganized after the manner of the heavenly 
societies to which the several classes or groups 
are destined. Thus in the world of spirits, just 
outside the gates of the eternal heaven, is a 
school which is itself a heaven in anticipation. 
Its employments are the employments of love. 
They are love's own wise and beneficent activi- 
ties for the common good, and every activity 
illustrates a truth and opens more the receptive 
capacity of the learner and doer. It is an in- 
spired life, aided by all the wealth of outward 
illustration peculiar to a world whose objects 
are created by and change with and represent 
spiritual states and ideas. The love of truth is 
thus insinuated, and the love of truth has its 
fulness of delight in the doing of truth. There 
is no law for compulsory attendance at this 
school. Youth and adults, males and females, 
Christians and pagans, Jews and gentiles, and 



20 Death and the Future State. 

all the races of our earth, — all who will may 
enjoy its exalted benefits, tuition free. But the 
one essential benefit, and that which introduces 
to heaven, is not knowledge, but heavenly life 
by means of knowledge. 

They especially need to take a full course 
in that school who, being well disposed in the 
earth-life, have not had sufficient instruction on 
earth. But the man who has been regenerated 
on earth passes at once to his place in heaven. 

The attainment of heavenly life by means of 
knowledge is the standard for final examination. 
There were some spirits, says Swedenborg, who 
were confident that they would enter heaven, 
even in preference to others, because they were 
learned and knew much about the Sacred Scrip- 
tures and the doctrines of their churches. They 
imagined that they were wise and would there- 
fore shine as the stars of the firmament. But 
they had missed the chief requirement. Being 
examined, they were found to have their knowl- 
edge in memory and not in life. They could 
not " shine," because knowledge shines only 
from the love of it for the sake of service to 
others, in which case it transfigures the life. 
But in order that they might be withdrawn 
from the foolish belief that they would be 



Preparation and Interior Companionship, 21 

honored and served by angels on account of 
their superior learning, they were permitted 
to approach the entrance of the first or lowest 
heaven. The result was that they were blinded 
by the light that met their eyes, confused in 
mind, began to pant for breath like dying 
persons, were tortured by the heavenly love 
which the light conveyed, and so were cast 
down. Then they sincerely wished to be in- 
structed in the right way, and the instruction 
was given them. 

Because one's development after death is great 
and rapid, he may in a few years be so changed 
in appearance that his earthly friends would not 
know him, and all external ties may have been 
forgotten for internal. Even family ties give 
way to attachments spiritual and eternal. This 
does not mean that good spirits lose interest in 
any friend here or there, for they love all human 
beings with a love that is purer and stronger 
than even the tenderest natural affection. If 
there is a mutual desire to meet, there will be a 
meeting ; for it is a law of the entire spiritual 
world that desire and thought bring presence. 
But the desire to meet on the basis of external 
attachments cannot exist in the spirits who have 
passed out of externals into a permanent in- 



22 Death and the Future State. 

terior state, and thus out of the intermediate 
world into heaven or hell. Consequently all 
meetings of an earthly or. natural character 
must take place in the intermediate world, and 
not with any one there after the maximum limit 
of about thirty years, now since the last General 
Judgment, which took place in the year 1757. 

Those who have been acquaintances and 
friends meet and converse in the world of spirits 
whensoever they desire, especially husbands and 
wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children ; 
though if their characters and dispositions are 
dissimilar they soon separate. " But they who 
pass from the world of spirits into heaven or 
hell, see each other no more, nor longer know 
anything about each other, unless they are of 
similar disposition and similar loves." And 
this is because they who are in the world of 
spirits can be brought into states similar to those 
which they experienced in the life of the body, 
and because they who are in the permanent state 
of their ruling love, and so in heaven or hell, 
cannot. 

If a child in the preparatory heavenly school 
in the world of spirits should be drawn by a 
lately deceased parent's merely natural wish to 
see it, the meeting would be effected by the now 



Preparation and Interior Companionship. 23 

much grown and much changed child's coming 
again temporarily into a former state, and so 
taking again the exterior which the parent 
would recognize. And so of a much changed 
wife or husband. 

Whether husband and wife remain husband 
and wife will depend upon how truly they have 
loved, and how soul-united they are. " One 
married partner meets another," says our Seer, 
"and they mutually congratulate; they also re- 
main together for a time, longer or shorter 
according to the delight that has attended their 
dwelling together in the world. Nevertheless, 
if love truly conjugial, or union of minds from 
heavenly love, has not conjoined them, then, 
after remaining together for some time, they 
separate. But if their minds have been dis- 
cordant, and interiorly averse to each other, they 
break out in open enmity, and sometimes ac- 
tually quarrel." 

Since only those who are yet in the inter- 
mediate state can return to former states and 
exteriors, therefore they who communicate w r ith 
spirits may be greatly deceived if they suppose 
they are conversing with friends who are in 
heaven. To realize this supposition, they them- 
selves would have to be in a similar angelic love 



24 Death and the Future State. 

to those friends, and this may mean even more 
than their regeneration. The deception is prac- 
tised by deceitful spirits who, from the conscious 
or even latent memories of those who are seek- 
ing intercourse, assume exteriors which readily 
pass for those of the friends whose presence is 
desired. 



^5^^» 



CHAPTER III. 
VASTATIOK 

Nearly all, before entering heaven or hell, 
have to undergo vastation in the world of 
spirits, or intermediate state, since very few at 
death are wholly good or wholly evil. Many 
persons who are inwardly well disposed are con- 
firmed either in evil habits which they have 
not been able to throw entirely off in the earth- 
life, or in false ideas and beliefs, with either 
of which they are incapable of heavenly life; 
also, many who are internally ill disposed pass 
into that intermediate world with a fair and 
even religious exterior, of which they must be 
divested before they can be really themselves 
and find their own place and people. This put- 
ting off of exteriors that are not in agreement 
with interiors is vastation. 

The present chapter will illustrate somewhat 
the process of vastation as experienced by those 
who are being prepared for heaven. 
25 



26 Death and the Future State. 

Having been accustomed to think hopefully 
of heaven when in the earth-life, they continue 
so to think of it in the intermediate world, and 
to form similar conceptions of it. But they 
must get rid of these conceptions if false, and 
be educated for heaven as it is. Some very in- 
teresting descriptions of their experience are 
given by Swedenborg in his " True Christian 
Keligion," Nos. 734-739. 

Some had imagined that heavenly joys con- 
sisted in the most delightful associations and 
intercourse, and so were introduced to compa- 
nies who had ia the world entertained the same 
idea. The place of meeting was a spacious 
house containing over fifty apartments, distin- 
guished according to the topics of conversa- 
tion, such as neighborhood affairs, amiable 
qualities of the fair sex, political events, trade, 
literature, morals, church, etc. Soon they were 
seen running about from one apartment to an- 
other, every one trying to find those who the 
most perfectly sympathized with him and could 
the most fully participate in his delight. Some 
were panting to speak, some eager to ask ques- 
tions, some eager to hear. The house had a 
door on each side, and in the course of two or 
three days many were seen at these doors sigh- 



Vastation. 27 

ing and weeping to go out. They were sick 
of the continued meeting and talking ; but the 
doors would not open. When any one would 
knock at a door for it to open, the answer came, 
" Stay and enjoy the delights of heaven." They 
were in utter despair, thinking that they must 
stay in that heaven to eternity. But an angel 
finally told them that it was only the death of 
their mistaken joys ; that they had taken the 
accessory joys of heaven for the real. " What, 
then, is heavenly joy?" they eagerly inquired. 
And the angel answered : " It is the delight 
of doing something which is of use to one's 
self and to others. The essence of this de- 
light is love, and the existence of it is wis- 
dom. Pleasant and exhilarating intercourse is 
for angels after they have performed uses in 
their offices and employments ; and then there 
is a soul and life in all their entertainments." 
Then the doors were opened, and the despairing 
ones leaped out and ran home, each to his par- 
ticular occupation. 

Another group were introduced into the felic- 
ity which they had imagined, — that of feasting 
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and other 
Scripture worthies. They were led through a 
grove into a plain, where there was a great floor 



28 Death and the Future State. 

on which tables were set — fifteen on one side 
for the three patriarchs and the twelve apostles, 
and fifteen on the other for their wives. Soon 
the tables were covered with dishes, and the 
intervening spaces were ornamented with little 
pyramids filled with sauces. Then came the 
procession of patriarchs, apostles and wives, 
each taking his seat at the head of a table, and 
inviting the newly arrived guests to occupy the 
other places. The men sat down with the 
patriarchs and apostles, and the women with 
the wives, and ate and drank with joy and ven- 
eration. After dinner, games were introduced, 
and dances and shows ; and then came feasting 
again. But this was to be varied by all the 
men eating one day with Abraham, the next 
day with Isaac, and so on, and by all the 
women following the same order with their 
hostesses, for fifteen days, when the festivities 
should be renewed in like order, and this to 
eternity. The result was loathing and sadness. 
Here were fifty guests, and there fifty, who 
had filled their stomachs to loathing, and now 
begged permission to return to their proper oc- 
cupations. They were urged to stay, because it 
would be a shame for guests thus to leave those 
ancient worthies; but they were permitted to 



Vastation. 29 

go, and each returned speedily to his useful 
work. They were told, however, that in heaven 
there are feasts and various amusements, but 
that the delights of them are from the use 
which every one performs in his daily life; in- 
deed that the food corresponds in every respect 
to the use performed, being magnificent for 
those who are in superior uses, and less mag- 
nificent for those who are in inferior uses, but 
exquisitely relished by all. 

The chiefs at the heads of the tables were not 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the apostles, but 
bearded old men who had fancied themselves 
such. 

Another group had believed that they would 
reign with Christ forever, and be ministered to 
by angels. These, wishing to be admitted to 
their ideal heaven, were led by the angel to a 
portico constructed of columns and pyramids. 
Then appeared another who personated an angel, 
and he told them that the way to heaven was 
through that portico; but that they must wait 
a while and prepare themselves, because the 
older ones of them were to be kings and the 
young ones princes. This being said, there ap- 
peared near each column a throne on which 
were a robe of silk, a scepter and a crown; 



30 Death and the Future State. 

and near each pyramid a seat raised three cubits 
from the ground, on which were a chain of little 
links of gold, and badges of nobility fastened 
together at the ends with diamond rings. They 
needed no urgent invitation to put on their gar- 
ments and take their places on the thrones 
and seats, for they did so quickly and joyfully. 
Then they were told to wait. A thick cloud 
arose from below, and was drawn to them as 
they sat; and their faces swelled, and their 
breasts heaved, with confidence that now really 
they were kings and princes. The cloud was 
the exhalation of this fantasy. Then flew to 
them young men, as it were, from heaven, and 
stood two behind each throne, and one behind 
each seat, to minister; and the proclamation 
was made by a herald, " Kings and princes, 
wait yet a little while ; your palaces in heaven 
are now being prepared ; very soon the courtiers, 
with the guards, will come and introduce you." 
They waited and waited, until their spirits 
drooped and they became weary with desire. 
After three hours the heaven opened over their 
heads, and the angels looked down in pity, and 
said, "Why do you sit thus infatuated, and act 
parts that do not belong to you ? They have 
played tricks with you, and changed you from 



Vastation. 31 

men into idols, because you had taken it into 
your hearts that you were to reign with Christ 
as kings and princes and have angels minister 
unto you. Have you forgotten the words of 
our Lord, that in heaven whosoever wishes to 
be great, let him become a servant? Learn 
then what is meant by being kings and princes, 
and what by reigning with Christ ; that it is 
to be wise and do uses ; for the kingdom of 
Christ, which is in heaven, is a kingdom of 
uses. . . . There are in the heavens, as on 
earth, supereminent dominions and the richest 
treasures; for there are governments and forms 
of government, and thus greater and less 
powers and dignities ; and those who are in the 
highest stations have palaces and courts which 
exceed in magnificence and splendor those of 
emperors and kings on earth ; and from the 
number of their courtiers, ministers and guards, 
and from the magnificent vestures of these, 
honor and glory surround them. But those 
highest ones are chosen from those whose hearts 
are in the public welfare, and only their bodily 
senses, not their hearts, are in the amplitude of 
magnificence, for the sake of obedience." 

Then there was a getting down from the 
thrones and high seats, a casting away of seep- 



32 Death and the Future State. 

ters and crowns and robes and badges, and the 
thick cloud of fantasy receded ; and a bright 
cloud, in which was the aura of wisdom, encom- 
passed, and sanity returned to the minds of the 
infatuated. 

Then the angel called to him those who be- 
lieved that heaven was a paradise, with perfect 
rest from labor, with naught to do but delight 
the senses with beauty and fragrance and fes- 
tive repasts. These were likewise introduced to 
their joys. In paradise they saw a great multi- 
tude of both sexes and all ages; and sitting 
three and three, and ten and ten, upon beds of 
roses, were women and girls wreathing garlands 
to adorn the heads of the old men, the arms of 
the young men and the bosoms of the boys. 
Others were pressing into cups juice from grapes, 
cherries and mulberries, and drinking merrily; 
others were inhaling the fragrance of flowers 
and fruits and leaves from all directions ; others 
were singing sweet songs, soothing to the ears 
of those present ; others were sitting by foun- 
tains, and directing into various forms the gush- 
ing streams ; others were walking and talking, 
and scattering wit and pleasantry ; others were 
going into arbors and lying down upon couches. 
Could anyone weep in such a heaven as this? 



Vastation. 33 

Really it was heaven, externally. Yes, they 
found weeping ; for, led along winding paths, 
they came to a most beautiful bed of roses sur- 
rounded by olive, orange and citron trees, w T here 
were sitting some who held their faces in their 
hands and wept. " Why do you sit thus?" 
asked the angel's companions. And they an- 
swered, " It is now the seventh day since w r e 
came into this paradise. When we entered, our 
minds seemed elevated into heaven, and let into 
the inmost happiness of its joys ; but after three 
days those pleasures began to grow dull, to lose 
their relish in our minds, and to become im- 
perceptible, and thus nothing; and when our 
imaginary joys thus expired, we feared the loss 
of all the enjoyment of our life, and became 
doubtful about eternal happiness, whether there 
be any such thing. Afterwards we wandered 
through streets and uninhabited places in search 
of the gate through which we had entered, in- 
quiring of whomsoever we met; but we were 
told that the gate could not be found because 
this paradise is such a spacious labyrinth that 
they who try to get out only get further in, that 
we were in the middle where all its delights 
center, and must remain here to eternity. We 
have been sitting here for a day and a half 
3 



34 Death and the Future State. 

without hope, and the more we sense the abun- 
dance of olives, grapes, oranges and roses, the 
more our sight and smell and taste are wearied." 

To this the conducting angel replied, " This 
paradise is truly an entrance to heaven. I 
know the way out of it, and will lead you out." 

Then the despairing ones arose and embraced 
the angel, and followed him, with his company. 
And the angel taught them that heavenly joys 
are not external delights, unless there are corre- 
sponding delights in the soul. And they all 
asked, " What is the delight of the soul, and 
whence is it ? " The answer was, u The delight 
of the soul is from love and wisdom from the 
Lord, and the seat of both is in use. This de- 
light from the Lord flows into the soul, descend- 
ing through the mind into all the senses of the 
body, becoming eternal joy from the eternal 
source of it. Every leaf of this paradise exists 
from the marriage of love and wisdom in use^ 
and if man be in this marriage he is in a 
heavenly paradise, thus in heaven." 

Another group believed heavenly joy to be a 
perpetual glorification of God, because in the 
world they had believed that they should see 
and worship God as in a perpetual sabbath. 
These were introduced by the angel into a little 



Vastatio7i. 35 

city, in the midst of which was a temple, and 
all the houses of which were called sacred 
chapels. Here they saw a multitude flowing in 
from every corner of the country, and priests 
who saluted them and led them to the gates of 
the temple, and thence into some of the chapels 
around the temple, and initiated them into the 
everlasting worship of God, telling them that 
this temple and city were the entrance to the 
most spacious and magnificent temple and city in 
heaven, where God is glorified by the angels with 
prayers and praises to eternity. The statutes of 
the little city were that the worshipersshould first 
enter into the temple and remain there three days 
and nights, then go into the chapels consecrated 
by the priests, and from chapel to chapel, and join 
those in worship who were already assembled, 
praying and shouting, and rehearsing what had 
been preached. Every thought must be holy, 
pious, religious. Our company entered the 
temple, thronged with people great and com- 
mon, passing guards at gates whose duty it was 
to let no one out until he had staid three days. 
Many they found asleep, others yawning, others 
seeming to have their faces severed from their 
body, — all wearied. There was a general turn- 
ing away from the pulpit, and they cried, " Oh, 



36 Death and the Future State. 

finish your discourses ; your voice is no longer 
heard ; the sound of it is intolerable." Then 
all rose together, ran to the gates, broke them 
open and drove away the guards. The priests 
followed, teaching, praying, and exhorting, 
" Celebrate the festival ; glorify God ; sanctify 
yourselves ; we are initiating you into the eternal 
glorification of God in that most spacious and 
magnificent temple on high." " Let us alone," 
they cried ; " we feel as if we should faint " ; 
and they tore away from the priests. Then ap- 
peared four men in white garmeuts, wearing 
mitres, — one having been an archbishop in the 
world, and the others bishops, but all now angels. 
Addressing the priests, they said : " We have 
seen you from heaven with these sheep, how you 
feed them, even to insanity. You know not 
what is meant by the glorification of God. It 
means to produce the fruits of love; that is, 
to do faithfully, sincerely and diligently the 
work of one's station. This is of the love of 
God and the neighbor, which is the bond and 
good of society. By this God is glorified, 
and by worship at stated times. You priests 
can continue in the glorification of worship, be- 
cause this is your office and your glory and rec- 
ompense. Otherwise you could not, more than 



Vastation. 37 

they." And the angel bishops commanded the 
gate-keepers to let all in and all out, since there 
are many who cannot think of any other 
heavenly joy than perpetual worship, because 
they know nothing of the heavenly state. 

The experiences are given of others who be- 
lieved that heavenly joy and eternal happiness 
were only admission into heaven by divine grace. 
These were admitted far enough into the heaven 
of white-clad angels to discover that they were 
guests without the wedding garment, and then 
were mercifully cast out, to desire heaven no 
more as a place, but only as a life among their 
like, wherever that might be. 

Every one who becomes an angel carries with- 
in himself his own heaven, because in him is 
the love which makes his own heaven. 



CHAPTER IV. 
HELL AND ITS DURATION. 

Death ends in resurrection. Resurrection is 
conscious and entire entrance into the interme- 
diate state between heaven and hell, called the 
world of spirits. This entrance is the begin- 
ning of judgment, just as the entrance of food 
into the stomach is the beginning of its separa- 
tion into nutriment and excrement. The good 
are attracted to and become incorporated in the 
heavenly human body, and the evil are cast 
out. They are cast out, however, by their own 
dislike of a heavenly life, and drawn together 
in infernal societies by sensual and selfish affini- 
ties. This judgment is merely the evolution of 
what already rules and is confirmed in each life, 
and is quickly passed, the time varying from a 
few days with some to a few years with others. 

And hell is the portion of the ungodly ! But 

what is hell? An evil and false life is itself a 

hell, even on earth. It has not in it the divine 

love and light and aim which make heaven. 

38 



Hell and Its Duration. 39 

Only self rules, and its rule is darkness. Only 
the natural faculties are developed, and these 
are employed in the service of self. No spir- 
itual faculty is open, by which heaven may be 
known. The way has not been walked in, on 
which rises heaven's sun. The higher life 
than the natural and selfish and gross is un- 
known, or belief in it is not entertained. There 
has been no thrill or quickening from the 
heights where love of fellow-man is life's 
divine incentive — no spiritual birth ; or, if 
there has been, it has been stilled by the head- 
long rush for self-gratification. A world is hell 
if composed of people of this kind, and every 
judgment of divine truth condemns it. " And 
this is the condemnation : that light is come 
into the world, and men love darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds are evil." An 
evil life is hell, and its own loves cast it out of 
the kingdom of light into " outer darkness." 

Is there suffering? Yes; there cannot be 
sin without suffering. Yet much that is pitia- 
ble in the devil's condition is his want, even his 
ignorance, of the happiness which spiritual de- 
velopment brings. From him the higher and 
really human existence is shut out. He is out 
of the real beneficence of divine law, because 



40 Death and the Future State. 

he is out of the true order of life. The true 
order is for the natural or animal in man to 
subserve the spiritual. The spiritual is awak- 
ened by the Divine Spirit, which broods over 
all; which speaks to us through childhood 
memories, memories of innocence and dear re- 
lationships; which appeals to us through all 
that is beautiful and true and good in nature 
and in fellow-man ; which is present in the 
reverent reading of Sacred Scripture, and in 
meditation upon the life and sayings of the 
Christ. The bliss of ignorance here is the bliss 
of only an animal existence ; the reward of 
disobedience a most vital deformity. Not to 
know is to remain out of heaven, and to sin 
against knowledge is to shut out by confirmed 
habit and organic inversion the only power that 
opens heaven. What more hopeless state can 
be imagined than that in which the sacredness 
of sacred things is lost or ceases to appeal? To 
be lashed by an outraged conscience is terrible, 
but to have forsaken conscience until it can lash 
no more is hell. Devils have no conscience. 
They have drowned it in the current of their 
ruinous propensities ; and about them is no as- 
sociation that can bring it back to life. They 
are at ease in the delights of an inverted life, 



Hell and Its Duration. 41 

except as they are restrained in their gratifica- 
tions by punishments from the clashings of 
common interest or by the horrors of their own 
excesses. Their highest law is the law of self ; 
all consideration of others' happiness is under 
their feet. Thus they are the antipodes of 
angels, whose highest law is love of others. 
Between them and the angels there is " a great 
gulf," or expanse, and the devils stand below 
this with feet upward. What is highest in the 
angel's life is lowest in the devil's. What is 
hell to the angel is heaven to the devil. What 
is filthy and abhorrent to those in heaven is 
clean and pleasing to those in hell. Cruelty, 
adultery, profanation, cunning and dominion 
constitute the delight and life of hell, and yet 
hell is collectively governed by the operation of 
these very principles. It is self against self; 
it is restraint by fear; it is punishment surely 
following the transgression of the infernal 
wishes of others. With a view to the most tol- 
erable existence in social relations, even devils 
learn to treat one another with the necessary 
respect. So far is this true, according to Swe- 
denborg, that " the common torment of those 
in hell consists in their being withheld from 
their loves." And yet they are " ever being 



42 Death and the Future State. 

infested interiorly by the love of their false 
principles and by the cupidities of their evil," 
which make the restraints and punishments 
necessary. Their only life is a quenchless fire 
of an infernal love, and their only wisdom the 
sulphurous light of that love ; and in conflict 
the billows of this lake of fire and brimstone 
grow weary, and then there are order and 
calm. There are friendships, it is true — there 
are infernal groups bound together in similar 
delights and employments — but they are friend- 
ships like those of bands of thieves and rob- 
bers, wholly selfish, wholly false. 

Does evil bring any other punishments upon 
its lovers in hell, than those which are govern- 
mentally inflicted? All analogy would teach 
that it does. As no law of bodily health can 
be transgressed without evil result, so it must 
be in the matter of spiritual health. And if 
the personal appearance of a devil takes the 
very form of the evil love which animates him, 
whether it be that of a serpent, a wolf, a hog or 
an owl or even a skeleton, even though to him- 
self it is a form corresponding to his delight 
and thus not hideous as when viewed from 
heaven, yet this deformity is one of gradual re- 
sult, and shows the destructive work of evil in 



Hell and Its Duration. 43 

the devil himself. It is presumable, therefore, 
that there are limits beyond which infernal de- 
lights cannot be enjoyed without internal suffer- 
ing ; and we are told by Swedenborg that there 
are excesses which result in the utmost horror 
and loathing. It seems that this would eventu- 
ally destroy the capacity to enjoy evil. And 
why not, since an inverted state of life must 
bring results the opposite of those eternally life- 
giving results of right living which the angels 
experience? Surely there must be a time with 
every lost soul when iniquity shall have an end, 
and when new and higher delights shall begin. 
Will not the deformed remnants, even the bare 
skeletons, of human souls then be created anew ? 
Swedenborg says many things to indicate 
that they will, if he does not affirm it; and yet 
he teaches, in other places in his writings, very 
positively the opposite. As we are treating the 
hells in the light of his revelations, our readers 
shall here have the benefit of some of what seem 
to be conflicting passages on this matter of a 
soul's endless existence in hell. 

IN HELL TO ETERNITY. 

1. " The life of man cannot be changed after 
death ; it remains then such as it has been. 



44 Death and the Future State. 

Nor can the life of hell be transcribed into the 
life of heaven, since they are opposite. Hence 
it is evident that they who come into hell re- 
main there to eternity, and that they who come 
into heaven remain thereto eternity." — Arcana 
Ccelestia, 10,749. 

2. " A man is altogether such as the ruling 
principle of his life is. By this he is distin- 
guished from others. According to this his 
heaven is made, if he is good ; and his hell, if 
he is evil. It is his very will, his selfhood, his 
nature ; for it is the esse of his life. This, after 
death, cannot be changed, because it is the man 
himself." — True Christian Religion, 399. 

3. " I have been permitted to converse with 
some who lived twenty centuries ago, whose 
lives are known because described in history ; 
and I found that they still retained their dis- 
tinctive characters ; . . . with others who 
lived seventeen, four, and three centuries ago, 
and a similar affection was found to rule in them 
still. I have been told by the angels that the life 
of the ruling love is never changed with any one 
to eternity, since every one is his own love; 
wherefore to change that love in a spirit would 
be to deprive him of his life, or to annihilate 
him. They also stated the reason why the life 
of the ruling love is never changed with any 
one after death ; which is, that man after death 
is no longer capable of being reformed by in- 
struction, as in the world, because the ultimate 
plane, which consists of natural knowledge and 



Hell and Its Duration. 45 

affection, is then quiescent, and cannot be opened 
because it is not spiritual ; that the interiors of 
the natural and of the rational mind rest upon 
that plane, like a house upon its foundation." 
— Heaven and Hell, 480. 

Number 464 is here referred to, in which it 
is said that though the external or natural mem- 
ory is in man after death, yet the merely natural 
things in that memory are then spiritual, corre- 
sponding to the natural ; but that, nevertheless, 
when these spiritual things are exhibited to the 
sight they appear in forms similar to the natural. 
It seems to us, then, that these exhibitions to the 
sight of one who has sufficiently suffered for his 
evils might serve as a basis of reformation by 
instruction. And in Spiritual Diary (426), it 
is said of the souls of the dead who had lived 
near the end of the age before the Last Judg- 
ment (when there was no faith on earth), and 
who were in an inverted order in the other life, 
that they retained the fantasies in which their 
life still consisted, and by these fantasies might 
be led to knowledge and prepared for heaven. 

In this connection read the following from 
"Arcana Coelestia," 561 :— 

" The goods and truths which a man has 
learned from the Word of the Lord from child- 



46 Death and the Future State. 

hood up, and all his states of innocence from 
infancy, such as love toward parents, brothers 
and sisters, teachers and friends, and charity 
toward others and pity for them, — these are 
called remains. They are preserved in man by 
the Lord, and are stored up, quite without his 
knowledge, in his internal man ; and are sepa- 
rated entirely from the things that are of man's 
own, or from evils and falsities. All these 
states are so preserved in man by the Lord, 
that not the least of them is lost. This I know, 
because every state of a man, from his infancy to 
extreme old age, not only remains in the other 
life but also returns, and this just as they were 
when he was living in the world. And when 
states of evil and falsity or of malice and fantasy 
recur — which they do, every one, even to the 
least particular — then these states are tempered 
by the Lord by means of the good states. From 
these facts it may be evident that if man had no 
remains, he could not but be in eternal con- 
demnation." 



Of those who perished in the Flood it is then 
said, that at last they had almost no remains; 
and that never before or since were any people 
in so abominable and deadly loves and persua- 
sions. Yet in the year A. D. 1747, after thou- 
sands of years, all of these that had been in a 
certain "direful and abominable" hell had been 



Hell and Its Duration. 47 

brought out, and some of them "created anew." 
("Spiritual Diary/' 286.) 

4. " They who are cast into hell endure evils 
continually more grievous, and this until they 
dare not occasion evil to any one; and after- 
wards they remain in hell to eternity, whence 
they cannot be extracted, because it cannot be 
given them to will good to any one, only not to 
do evil from fear of punishment, the lust to do 
so always remaining." — Arcana Ccelestia, 754. 

5. " There were some who had imagined that 
they should easily receive divine truths after 
death, when they should hear them from the 
angels, and that they should believe them, and 
consequently should live a different life, and 
thus be received into heaven. But the experi- 
ment was made with them, in order that they 
might know that repentance after death was not 
given. Some of them understood truths, and 
seemed to try to receive them ; but as soon as 
they turned to the life of their love they rejected 
them and even spoke against them. Some re- 
jected them immediately, being unwilling to 
hear them. Some were desirous that the life of 
the love w r hich they had contracted in the world 
might be taken away from them, and that an- 
gelic life, or the life of heaven, might be infused 
in its place. This also was accomplished for 
them ; but when the life of their love was taken 
away, they lay as if dead, having no longer the 



48 Death and the Future State. 

use of any of their faculties." — Heaven and 
Hell, 527. 



NOT IN HELL TO ETERNITY. 

1. " There is a region, to the left of Gehenna* 
which, in proportion as the punishments are 
more grievous, extends itself thereunder. There 
the spirits appear only as dire serpents, with 
large bellies. Here, underneath Gehenna, are 
the punishments of those who breathe revenge, 
even to the destruction of the souls of men, and 
thecondemningof them to hell. . . . In such 
a dungeon these dragon-like spirits live in direful 
fantasies. They cannot indeed hurt one another, 
but are divested, as it were, of rationality, and 
resemble monsters. There they remain for cen- 
turies, until their former life is altered; for as 
the delights of their life consisted in revenge, 
these delights cannot be extinguished but with 
such life, — wherefore they remain in that state 
until they no longer know that they had been 
men. Thus their former life dies, but yet re- 
mains, and they are enabled by a superadded 
gift of the Lord to alter their life; in which 
ability so long as they can be preserved, they 
can be continued among a certain class of spirits; 
but of what quality they then approve them- 
selves has not been given me to know." — 
Spiritual Diary, 1495-7. 

2. In a chapter on "Hell and the Infernal 



Hell and Its Duration. 49 

Crew " (" Spiritual Diary, " 284-7), which crew 
appeared to him "from the lowest hell," and 
were seeking after innocent virgins, and imag- 
ined themselves gods with the universe under 
their feet, he says : " I was afterward told from 
heaven, that such are there [in that hell] as 
have very little of the human principle left, 
and that they remain there for centuries, some 
having been there already twenty centuries. 
There are, however, none of those there who 
perished in the time of the Flood, for they have 
been brought out of that direfully infernal tun ; 
and there are those who have been created anew." 
He is speaking here of " the lowest infernal 
crew," or " the worst in hell," who are " nothing 
but deceit and serpentine venom, and thus 
directly the opposite of mercy and innocence." 
3. In a chapter on " The State of the Damned 
in Hell " (" Spiritual Diary," 228), he says that 
he was let down to the unhappy in hell, that he 
might perceive their state and hence announce 
to the world, and especially to unbelievers, that 
there is a hell and what is the state of those who 
are there. There were lamentations, and calls 
to God and Christ for mercy. There were 
complaints against certain other spirits, called 
" furies," who inflicted torments. Consolation 
4 



50 Death and the Future State. 

was given. Afterward he was told that God 
Messiah appeared in glory to the unhappy ones, 
and they received greater consolation. Still 
later he saw many of them raised from hell 
and torments into heaven. 

What seems to be a summary of this last de- 
scribed experience is given in the " Arcana 
Coelestia," 699, in an introduction to a series 
of chapters on " Hell," and preceding the sum- 
mary is the following explanation : " Besides 
the hells, there are also vastations. For a man 
— and even one who has lived uprightly — takes 
with him into the other life, from actual sins, 
innumerable evils and falsities, which he heaps 
up and binds together. Before such can be 
taken up into heaven, his evils and falsities 
must be dissipated. This dissipation is called 
vastation. There are many kinds of vastations, 
and longer and shorter periods of vastation. 
That I might witness the torment of those who 
are in hell, and the vastation of those who are in 
the loiver earthy I have at different times been 
let down thither." 

It would seem, then, that " the damned in 
hell" who received consolation and deliver- 
ance were some in the world of spirits 'who 
were undergoing " vastation " in what are called 



Hell and Its Duration. 51 

pits or prisons. But plainly there is a depar- 
ture here from Swedenborg's usual care in 
classification ; for now follows his announce- 
ment of the heads of five chapters, four of 
which are descriptions of as many various hells, 
and the fifth treats of those who are in " vasta- 
tion." Here is the careful classification. And 
so if we find anything in either of the first four 
chapters that indicates the end of the infernal 
state with any soul, we must take it as proof 
that Swedenborg, when treating of hell as 
known to him before the Last Judgment, of 
1757, gives reason for hope for the very worst 
and lowest infernals ; for it would be impossible 
to conceive of worse hells, even after the Last 
Judgment, than are here described. 

In the first chapter, which treats of the hells 
of hatred and revenge, is this very hopeful in- 
dication : "They live in dreadful fantasies, 
and there for ages, until they no longer know 
that they have been men. Their life which 
they have derived from such hatreds and re- 
venges cannot otherwise be extinguished." 

In the second chapter, which treats of the 
hells of the lascivious, adulterous and deceitful, 
he says, in speaking of adulterers: "This 
punishment [appearing to be in the belly of a 



52 Death and the Future State. 

filthy harlot who is changed into a great 
dragon] returns many times daring hundreds 
and thousands of years, until they are imbued 
with a horror of such lusts." And in the same 
chapter, speaking of the lascivious, he says : 
" By these violent alternations [having the 
joints put out of place and back again], to- 
gether with their struggles in resistance, they 
are so rent that they seem to themselves as if 
dismembered and torn in bits, with frightful 
pain; and this time after time, until, struck 
with horror at such principles of life, they cease 
to think that way." 

The fourth chapter is the most interesting. 
After describing various horrible punishments 
into which the infernals are led " by their foul 
lusts, until they acquire shame, terror and hor- 
ror for such things and at length desist from 
them," and after stating that " something is re- 
moved by each punishment," and that because 
of the equilibrium of all things in the other 
life evil punishes itself, he writes that noted 
passage (No. 967) : " Unless evil could be taken 
away by means of punishment, those in whom it 
exists could not but be kept in some hell to 
eternity." 

But in the fifth chapter, which treats of 



Hell and Its Duration. 53 

" Vastations," he describes the states of those 
after death who in the world have lived in 
simplicity and ignorance, yet whose conscience 
has restrained them from indulging in evils to 
the extent that those have whom he has classed 
as devils in hell. Girls who have been enticed 
into harlotry and thus persuaded that there is 
no evil in it, but who are in other respects 
rightly disposed, undergo severe chastisements 
whenever they burst out into thought of wan- 
tonness. Those persons who have confirmed 
themselves altogether in false principles are re- 
duced to complete ignorance and confusion, so 
that when they but think of the ideas in which 
they were confirmed they have inward pain. 
After vastation in pits in what he calls " the 
lower earth," that open into the hells, all these 
are instructed by angels and received into 
heaven. Only once in this chapter is the word 
"hell" used. It is in this closing sentence: 
" But adult women who have been harlots and 
have enticed others, do not undergo vastation, 
but are in hell." 

Clearly, then, Swedenborg does not only in- 
dicate that the worst devils in hell may, after 
ages of suffering, be " created anew," but plainly 
says of such that " unless evil could be taken 



54 Death and the Future State. 

away by means of punishments, those in whom 
it exists could not but remain in some hell 
to eternity." And here he is not speaking of 
those who undergo what he calls " vastation." 

But can sufferings regenerate the soul ? No ; 
nor yet, if, as Swedenborg teaches, no soul is 
born for hell, but every one for heaven, can we 
believe that the Divine Arm is so shortened 
that it cannot by inward way (for even devils 
have not lost vital connection with their inmost 
Creator and Preserver) open the long closed 
gates of love and light. Sufferings do bring 
reformation ; and cannot God breathe new life 
into a human spirit by means of those inmost 
" remains " of innocence which are never lost, 
even though that spirit has been reduced to a 
skeleton or a beastly form ? To say that He 
who has created every soul for heaven cannot, 
is to deny that His wisdom and power are equal 
to His love. 

To console ourselves with the idea that hell 
is heaven to the devil, or an eternally delight- 
ful existence, must be a poor consolation from 
an angel's point of view, and hard to believe in 
view of such terrible revelations as even Swe- 
denborg gives us. 



Hell and Its Duration, 55 

To urge against this doctrine of imperishable 
hope the argument that it encourages the sinner 
to postpone repentance, is absurd ; since the be- 
lief that every sin brings its own full punish- 
ment, even to the end of that sin, is enough to 
deter from sin, and more than this is not reason- 
able. If, as Swedenborg says of those big-bellied 
dragons underneath Gehenna, their former life 
dies after centuries, and they are enabled " by a 
superadded gift of the Lord to alter their life," 
then upon others of the lowest and worst hells 
— even upon those who are " nothing but deceit 
and serpentine venom" — may there not dawn 
the hope of being " created anew " ? 

But let us pray to have part in the first res- 
urrection ; let us overcome while in the earth- 
life, so that we may not experience the second 
death. 



-W^C>ggo o!g^^ W _ 



CHAPTER V. 

LIFE IN HE A VEN. 

It is a pity that the doctrine of vicarious 
atonement has so obscured and travestied the 
heavenly life, both here and hereafter, as to 
leave it with only a gloomy attraction — a 
heavenly life seen only through Calvary. Its 
very songs are sad; its self-denial includes 
everything that would divert the mind from 
" Christ crucified " ; its good works have noth- 
ing to do with justification in the sight of God 
(as that is effected solely by Christ's obedience 
and sufferings), but are only a justification of 
one's faith in the sight of men ; its service of 
God is prayers, other religious observances and 
almsgiving. In this doctrine of vicarious sac- 
rifice, with the assurance of eternal election 
which it gave, and the ceremonial and conven- 
tional observances which it imposed, it is not 
difficult to see the secret of the repulsiveness 
and fruitlessness of the Jewish religion as ex- 
posed and denounced by the Christ. 
56 



Life in Heaven. 57 

The heavenly or truly religious life is not 
that alternating sadness and rapture, nor that 
mere showing of one's faith by ceremonial and 
conventional observances, which the doctrine of 
vicarious atonement produces as its legitimate 
fruit; it is a life of faith in God's law of right 
doing, a life of use from the love of God and 
fellow-man. It employs every faculty, and de- 
velops a full and normal manhood and woman- 
hood. To receive and manifest the true life, 
one must look to the living Christ and the 
spiritual blood, not to a dying Christ and literal 
blood supposed to purchase eternal life. It is 
the living Christ in the soul, the Christ-love- 
and-mercy-and-justice, with the spiritual truths 
which this Christ principle is ever shedding, 
that constitutes eternal life ; and if we eat this 
divine flesh and drink this divine blood, eternal 
life is thereby given to us. If we apply this 
blood to our sins of selfish and evil purpose 
and thought and deed, it will cleanse us. The 
divine life comes into us, and is acknowledged 
as having its source in God and not in our- 
selves. Consequently all the works of this new 
life are of God, and the merit of them is His. 
By this life and these works we are saved, trans- 
formed into the divine likeness, and all the 



58 Death and the Future State. 

praise is to our Regenerator, not to us, nor to 
any man or angel. 

So the heavenly life must be a very full and 
useful life, and a proportionately happy one; 
and since it is the life of our Creator Himself 
developed in us, it must be a natural life, 
though spiritual. There is no renunciation of 
natural delights, as there is no renunciation of 
natural uses, but only a making of them sub- 
servient to heavenly principles. All the plea- 
sures and faculties of the natural man are thus 
lifted up and glorified, as is signified by the 
serpent lifted up in the wilderness. They be- 
come turned away from self to fellow-man, in 
their ultimate aim. Food comes to be eaten to 
sustain the body for a life of usefulness accord- 
ing to the principles of honesty and justice, and 
not to sustain it for a life of injury to others 
according to the principles of dishonesty and in- 
justice. All recreations and pursuits serve this 
same heavenly purpose, and become the more 
delightful in consequence. Natural delights 
are not renounced, but made subservient to 
divine principles, and this exalts and regulates 
them and gives them an ever-renewed relish. 
"In heaven as well as in the world, there are 
meats and drinks, feasts and repasts ; there are 



Life in Heaven. 59 

tables on which are spread the richest food and 
delicacies, by which the minds of the partakers 
are exhilarated and recreated ; there are games 
and shows ; there is music, vocal and instru- 
mental ; and those things in the highest perfec- 
tion. There are joys in them, and the joys are 
from the happiness of love and use which is re- 
ceived from the Lord. It is this happiness of 
love and use that causes them to be joys, gives 
them their relish, and prevents them from 
becoming tasteless and loathsome. This happi- 
ness every one has from the use which he per- 
forms in his calling." (" True Christian Reli- 
gion/' 735.) And this same non-renunciation 
of natural delights, but the exaltation of them 
by subserviency to heavenly uses, is further 
illustrated in the following : — 

" Have you forgotten the words of the Lord, 
that in heaven whosoever wishes to be great, let 
him become a servant ? Learn, then, what is 
meant by i kings 7 and ' princes/ and what by 
i reigning with Christ'; that it is to be wise 
and do uses ; for the kingdom of Christ, which 
is heaven, is a kingdom of uses. For the 
Lord loves all, and thence wills good to all, and 
good is use ; and because the Lord does good or 
uses mediately by angels, and in the world by 
men, therefore to those who faithfully perform 



60 Death and the Future State. 

uses He gives the love of use, and its reward, 
which is internal blessedness; and this is eternal 
happiness. There are in the heavens, as on 
earth, supereminent dominions and the richest 
treasures ; for there are governments and forms 
of government, and thus greater and less pow- 
ers and dignities ; and those who are in the 
highest stations have palaces and courts which 
in magnificence and splendor exceed the palaces 
and courts of emperors and kings on earth . . . 
But those highest ones are chosen from those 
whose hearts are in the public welfare, and only 
the senses of their bodies are in the amplitude 
of magnificence." — Id., 736. 

" i You may suppose/ said the angel, ' that 
such things fascinate our eyes and infatuate 
them, so that we should believe them to be the 
joys of heaven ; but, because our hearts are not 
in them, they are only accessory to the joys of 
our hearts/ "— Id., 740. 

This kind of heavenly life makes every em- 
ployment, every office, every diversion or rec- 
reation, every appetite or passion, a divine 
service and a means of growth. It beautifies 
the countenance with singleness to truth and 
right — makes the whole man transparent with 
sincerity and integrity ; it makes one trust- 
worthy in his every office and relation ; it 
broadens him beyond all creeds and convention- 



Life in Heaven. 61 

alities, because the life of love to God and man 
wants all truth ; it makes him strong, courage- 
ous — heroic if need be — in the right; it makes 
him repulsive to no one, but in spirit attractive 
to every one, though to some he may be a 
rebuke, or by some, who judge others by their 
own low standards, he may be misunderstood. 
There is nothing gloomy in such a life, nor in 
the contemplation of it. 

The heavenly life is a life developed from 
within, not a life put on. There is always 
something repulsive in the life that is put on. 
Besides it is a difficult one, because unnatural. 
It requires either revival effort or the motive of 
a hypocrite to sustain it. There is no such life 
in heaven. Alas, the conventionalism and in- 
sincerity of the world — the Christian world ! 
While I write, I am told by a teacher attend- 
ing a university summer school, that she shocked 
the professor and the other members of her 
class by saying that as a teacher of English 
literature in the South she had always been free 
to express opinions of her own. And she sur- 
prised them beyond measure by adding that 
she had never had any difficulty in retaining 
her place on that account. Bless the woman or 
man who has more to attach him to school or 



62 Death and the Future State. 

church or country than the ability and willing- 
ness to reflect the sentiments of " influential " 
people ! 

Had the church not repelled men by teaching 
the life of world-renunciation, thus making 
Christianity an unnatural and impracticable 
thing, but attracted them by teaching that all 
delights are lawful when made subservient to 
righteousness of life, Christian society could 
hardly have presented so sad and awful a spec- 
tacle of monopoly and slavery, greed and war, 
falseness and inhumanity, licentiousness and 
drunkenness, insincerity and selfishness and 
hypocrisy, as it does at the close of the nine- 
teenth century of the church's existence. 

" My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
May the Lord make us all so conscious of our 
burden of unnatural religion and life, of insin- 
cere profession and hypocritical pretension, of 
selfish strife and toil for the things of the body, 
of policy instead of the truth for the sake of 
success, of fear to speak what heaven inspires, 
of conventionalism and observances as stan- 
dards of culture and worth — so conscious of this 
burden upon our souls, that we shall gladly 
hear His invitation, " Come unto me, all ye 



Life in Heaven. 63 

that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will 
give you rest." 

Can we not now better conceive what kind 
of people the angels must be ? Yes, " people." 
We have been taught to think of them as a 
superhuman and winged race, and principally 
engaged in solemn adoration before a " great 
white throne" when not executing commands 
as ministers of divine government or doing 
errands of the divine mercy. Our vicarious 
atonement and our scheme of divine govern- 
ment have given even to them an unnatural 
sainltliness and unnatural employments. But 
the true religion reveals them as possessed of 
all human qualities, and as being in every re- 
spect simply men and women, only higher in 
the scale of regeneration, more advanced in the 
heavenly life and wisdom, more ail-roundly 
developed, than they were when living on earth 
in the flesh. They laugh and weep, play and 
work, eat and drink, converse and sing, study 
and discuss, grow weary and rest, sleep and 
wake, meditate and worship, just as other good, 
sensible, healthful and delightful men and 
women do. They have no wings but thoughts, 
no " great white throne" but the divine justice 
and discernment within them. There is nobody 



64 Death and the Future State. 

else in heaven but just human beings and the 
God that dwells within them and creates thence 
a heavenly world about them, such as perfectly 
corresponds to their states of life. Heaven in- 
wardly and outwardly is a heaven for every 
human faculty. 

Outwardly it must be a counterpart of our 
own visible universe, since death does not 
change people into beings that can do with- 
out a lighted firmament, a fruitful and diversi- 
fied earth, and changes of season. And it must 
be a most substantial or tangible world, though 
to us who as yet know little of the substantiality 
of spiritual things and their creations it seems 
as unreal as a fancy or a dream. It is hard to 
make a materialistic mind believe that there is 
any reality but matter, but the spiritual mind 
perceives with higher senses. Even in this 
world it deals with spiritual things, which are 
its food and drink and create its spiritual en- 
vironment. Through everything that is made 
it sees something of God that is invisible to the 
natural mind, and thus the elements of a spir- 
itual world corresponding to the natural. It 
lives from spiritual motives, is guided by spir- 
itual principles, dwells in spiritual light, and 
possibly projects spiritual creations. When the 



Life in Heaven. 65 

servant of Elisha, with other than natural eyes, 
beheld the mountain full of horses and chariots 
of fire round about his master, it was a vision 
of things composed of spiritual substances. It 
was not a fancy nor a dream, but an objected and 
typical illustration of the power of the doctrines 
of love to overcome evil : for " chariots of fire " 
signify doctrines of love, and the horses that 
drew them signify the understanding. John 
the Revelator, being in spirit, had many won- 
derful visions, significant of future spiritual 
states of the church. But visions thus given 
for a lesson are not permanent creations, and 
we are not to base our ideas of the more per- 
manent heavenly appearances upon them. We 
are not to think of golden streets and "a sea 
of glass mingled with fire " as the usual sup- 
port of the angels' feet, nor of "a great white 
throne " as continually appearing in their midst. 
The spiritual world isexhaustless in its capacity 
for projecting object-lessons, but yet otherwise 
it is a world of the most orderly creations, the 
more permanent of which correspond to the 
more permanent and general states of the in- 
habitants. 

It is a law of the spiritual world that all 
creations are from within the inhabitants, and 
5 



66 Death and the Future State. 

that nothing outwardly appears to any one 
unless there is that within him which cor- 
responds to it. A devil raised up into heaven 
would see no heavenly objects, nor would an 
angel of a lower heaven if taken up into a 
higher. Even the spiritual sun is an objected 
symbol of the Divine Love and Wisdom, and 
thus of God, in the angels. This sun is inte- 
riorly human in its form, because Divine Love 
and Wisdom in the angels is their divine 
humanity, and the source of their love and 
light. No angel ever sees the Lord in Person, 
except thus by aspect or correspondence; nor 
does one angel ever see another unless there is 
that in him which desires and projects him. 
Thought brings presence, and an angel may ap- 
pear in more than one place at the same time. 
In heaven every one is the creating medium of 
his own environment, and yet such is the law 
of affinities which groups the angels into soci- 
eties of like mind and genius, that all the mem- 
bers of a society have a common environment. 
Indeed such is the unity of life and mind 
throughout heaven, that all have the same sun 
in common, though to those in the highest or 
inmost heaven it shines with a golden splendor, 
while to those in the second heaven it has asil- 



Life in Heaven. 67 

very light. In every other respect, also, the 
two or the three heavens are different in appear- 
ance; and each one changes in significance and 
beauty with the progress of the inhabitants 
toward the Creator. The nearer to God, the 
richer and fuller the creation, and the more 
glorious and youthful the person. 

Then where is heaven ? Evidently it is 
within ; its possibility is in every human soul. 
It is an evolution of the God principles and the 
. God life. The laying off of the material body 
by death does not admit to it, though to enter 
it the most consciously this is necessary. 

Now as to heaven's employments. Spiritual 
employments — how can we describe or think of 
them ? It is difficult to understand how in a 
spiritual world there can be any great diversity 
of employment, absorbed as we are so wholly 
and constantly in providing for the body that 
we can hardly think it other than idleness to read 
a book, or converse, or meditate, or give much 
time to the mind. The wants and uses of the 
mind are so little known to us that it is diffi- 
cult for us to think of spiritual food and drink, 
or of the uses which a spirit can have for hands 
and feet. If the benefits of what we call our 
annihilation of time and space here on earth, by 



68 Death and the Future State. 

our wonderful discoveries and improvements, 
were equitably shared by all, then in the leisure 
so resulting, and in the exalted manhood which 
would bring this condition about, we might be 
able to understand that in that perfect annihila- 
tion of space and time which spirits enjoy in 
common there is left enough for them to do. 
We talk of national expansion, meaning en- 
largement of territory and power and material 
interests, but the "expansion" we need is ex- 
pansion of soul, so that we may realize that , 
there are higher and better employments than 
feeding and gratifying the body. 

Conceive, then, of a world where mental 
activity, prompted by divine love, communi- 
cates its blessed uses, with or without the in- 
strumentality of hands. Think of the thought 
communications, the spiritual food of new loves 
realized, the spiritual drink of new truths re- 
vealed, the spiritual guidance and quickening 
that come of being with God and one's own 
spiritual kindred ; and think of all this con- 
veyed from one to another by personal presence, 
by the speaking eye, by the fitting but undis- 
simulating tone of voice, by the hand filled with 
significant gifts ; think of the needs of divine 
and social communion, of evening rest and 



Life in Heaven. 69 

morning awakening; think of the reception 
and training of newly arrived souls from 
earth, and the ministering in unseen ways to all 
people on earth and even to all the poor deluded 
souls in hell; and think of the variety of needs 
and of talents there must be in the myriads who 
compose the heavens ; — if we think of all this, 
we cannot but somewhat see the truth of the 
doctrine that heaven has and ever must have 
employments in infinite variety and impor- 
tance. 



••^^S@5^^ 



CHAPTER VI. 
LIFE IN HEAVEN {Continued). 

DOING HEREAFTER WHAT ONE DOES HERE. 

The false impression has been long and per- 
sistently abroad upon the wings of gossip, 
that in the writings of Swedenborg is to be 
found the ludicrous doctrine that a person will 
follow the same occupation in the next world 
that he follows in this. This is to be accounted 
for by the fact that gossip cares little for 
the truth, and is hardly capable of seeing the 
truth when it is offered. " I am sure I don't 
want to do in the next world what I have to 
do here/' one of these gossip-mongers will say ; 
" if I am going to set type" or " wash dishes" 
or " shovel dirt/' as the case may be, " I don't 
want to go there." 

My dear friend, you will not " have " to do 
anything in heaven that you do not want to do, 
or that you do not above all things delight in 
doing. Think how it would be in this world 
if all our laws were based on the Golden Rule, 
70 



Life in Heaven. 71 

as are heaven's laws. If conditions were such 
here that everyone could choose his occupation 
according to his particular bent and talent, and 
receive due compensation in that occupation, so 
as to have leisure and means for recreation, then 
the idea of working in the same liue in heaven 
would be a delightful one. It is the necessity 
of engaging in what is not one's chosen and 
natural calling, or it is the necessity of his toil- 
ing unremittingly or starving, that makes him 
regard labor as a curse and idleness as bliss. 
Labor in the line of one's natural liking and 
aptitude, labor delighted in for the sake of use- 
fulness, labor with bright hope and ample 
fruition, labor with seasonable recreation, — this 
is what man is made for, and in this his real 
happiness consists. The child looks forward, 
as to the realization of a bright dream, to the 
time when it shall be a man or woman engaged 
in a man or woman's work, and shall own the 
products of that work as a basis of manly or 
womanly existence. Suppose our economic 
conditions so favored such anticipation that it 
should never experience a chill or despondency, 
then we should have a picture of heaven on 
earth. 

But we must have a still better understand- 



72 Death and the Future State. 

ing of this doing in the next world what we do 
in this. Supposing that one is in his most de- 
lightful and fitting occupation, such as house- 
keeping, cooking, sewing, type-setting, invent- 
ing or constructing machines, building, engi- 
neering, trading, managing a railway or editing 
a newspaper, it still is not true that he will fol- 
low the same occupation in a spiritual world 
that he does in this physical world. There are 
not the same occupations there, but only those 
resulting from corresponding uses. One can 
but very dimly discover in this world of me- 
chanical exertion upon fixed matter what in the 
spiritual world he will find that God has made 
him for. That is a world of mind and of men- 
tal things. All its creations and works are of 
God through minds. There is no material 
body to be cared for by tilling the soil or by 
mining or trade or manufacture. The very 
body is mental, including hands, feet and all 
the other members or organs. These but rep- 
resent so many various mental forms, activities 
and uses. Garments are given and renewed of 
God according to degree and quality of intelli- 
gence, with or without the direct effort or the 
consciousness of the recipient; also houses, 
paradises and other surroundings ; and so the 



Life in Heaven, 73 

Father is recognized as the Giver and Doer of 
all things, even when the gifts and works are 
given and done by means of the hands of the 
angels. Thus when certain ones had with ut- 
most zeal and exquisite skill fashioned a golden 
candlestick, with its lamps and flowers, to rep- 
resent the Lord, it seemed to outward conscious- 
ness that it was their own work, but it was 
given them to see that they had of themselves 
done nothing — that it was all the Lord's work. 
("Arcana Coelestia," 552.) The Divine is the 
recognized and infinite source for supplying 
everything in heaven that will make every in- 
dividual useful and happy to the extent of his 
capacity ; and there is no burden of care, no 
anxiety for the morrow, no thought of what 
shall we eat or wherewithal shall we be clothed, 
for all, like the birds, without storehouse are 
fed, and all, like the lilies, with beauty and 
sweetness are clothed. 

Variety of related industrial deligkts on earth 
but proves variety in heaven; and one who 
really has on earth the occupation of his heart 
and talent is certainly feeling after that corre- 
sponding use which he will perform in the other 
life, for the individuality or genius with which 
one is born never changes ; eternity is but for 



74 Death and the Future State. 

its ever more perfect exercise in its own one of 
the innumerable functions that unite in the 
" grand man " for the full and perfect accom- 
plishment of God's beneficent will. How im- 
portant it is, then, that conditions here on earth 
— in this seminary of heaven — be such that 
none shall select an unsuitable occupation from 
necessity or from the hope of gain. There 
ought to be no want by which any one's pecu- 
liar talent is kept from freest and fullest use. 
If education and opportunity were such in this 
w r orld that every one could find and be sup- 
ported in that use in which he supremely de- 
lights, what a foretaste of heaven this world 
would be ! How human genius would blossom, 
and how various and abundant would be the 
fruit ! Disease and crime and vice would dis- 
appear, every soul would attain to divine inspi- 
ration, and all would walk with God and the 
angels as they did in most ancient time. 
Heaven is organized upon this principle of the 
fitness of every man to his employment, and the 
organization results from having the Golden 
Rule as the law of heaven, — that is, from social 
justice. 

Perhaps w r e have not drawn this picture of 
heavenly employments with enough body to 



Life in Heaven. 75 

satisfy the lover of external realities. It may 
appear too dreamy or visionary. The visible 
and tangible objects of heaven may seem to lack 
permanency and reality, and the employments 
to be too exclusively those of the higher mental 
faculties. When we say that sensual and selfish 
people cannot enter heaven, we may seem to 
exclude all the delights of the external mind; 
but really only those people are excluded in 
whom sense and self are the ruling life. The 
delights of the external senses are keener in 
heaven than on earth, and are so because of 
their subordinate place and use. Commerce, 
agriculture, manufacture, art, poetry, music, 
and every other department of human industry 
and recreation, are there in their own skill and 
ever-increasing perfection. If angels have 
hands, they must use them ; if they have stom- 
achs they must fill them ; if eyes and ears and 
palates they must delight them ; if love of home 
they must have houses and cities; if delight in 
travel they must have means of travel. But 
because it is desire that propels them on wings 
of thought, so that they swiftly and gently 
glide, shall we prefer to stay on earth and be 
drawn by a locomotive ? Heaven is not lack- 
ing in resources if the one most perfect method 



76 Death and the Future State. 

©f travel should in any case become monotonous. 
Garments may be made by hand or machinery 
or given of God by interior way ; and so of 
houses and paintings and all the rest. But there 
is the advantage that every labor is so inspired 
by the love of its particular use, and through 
such fitness of every one to his calling, and by 
such ever higher and higher ideals and such 
influx of increasing skill, that even what the 
hand does is acknowledged to be a work of 
God. 

There is not such permanent sameness in ex- 
ternal nature or art or industrial products in 
heaven as there is in this world of matter, 
because these externals, both natural and arti- 
ficial, change with the states of the people. 
The more rapid progress of the people necessi- 
tates this, and the law that externals correspond 
with internals is the reason of it. 

That world, though spiritual, is composed of 
substance — spiritual substance. As the invisible 
and intangible ether rings, whose existence can 
be known to the scientist only by an hypothesis 
which accounts for all the properties of matter, 
— as these ether rings are the soul and creator 
of matter, so mind or thoughts are, in a spiritual 
world, the soul and creator of a substantial 



Life in Heaven. 77 

heaven and earth. The heavenly world about 
the angels, though changing to what is more 
perfect and lovely as the angels change, is as 
permanent as is the love for truth and good in 
the angels. " Forever, Lord, thy Word is 
established in the heavens. Thy faithfulness is 
unto all generations. Thou hast established 
the earth and it abideth. Thy judgments abide 
this day; for all things are thy servants." 
(Psa. cxix. 89-91.) 

GOVERNMENT IN HEATEN. 

The government of heaven is not arbitrary 
or artificial. It springs out of the various and 
related individualities of men — out of the di- 
vine talents in men which have been improved. 

There is one idea underlying all life in 
heaven that must not be overlooked — the idea 
of a Divine Humanity, from which all that is 
really and truly human is derived and shaped. 
It is this idea that makes an angel, or, what is 
the same, a regenerate or Godlike man. It is 
this idea that makes him good and true, that 
transfigures his face with innocence and charity, 
that shapes his features and form more and 
more into perfection of grace and beauty and 
governs his conduct as a social being. And 



78 Death and the Future State. 

what it does for an individual angel, it does for 
the collective angel called " the grand man." 
It makes all heaven human in character and 
form — a grand human organism of brain and 
heart and lungs and members, all mutually de- 
pendent for health and happiness and perfection 
— an organism harmonious in all its individual 
parts. Every member loves another as himself, 
there is no assumption of superiority of one 
over another, no grudging of service on the part 
of anyone who performs an inferior function. 
"He who in faith acknowledges and in his 
heart worships one God is in this communion 
of saints on earth and angels in heaven. It is 
called a ( communion ? because all who compose 
it are in one God, and have one God in them. 
All being as the children and posterity of one 
father, their minds, manners and faces so 
resemble that they recognize one another." 
(" True Christian Religion," 1 5.) Without this 
belief in and acknowledgment of a God who is 
the source and essence of all that is truly human 
in man, there could be, not only no government 
in heaven, but no heaven at all. 

There is government in heaven, but it is a 
government of "natural law in the spiritual 
world." And that natural law is the soul 



Life in Heaven. 79 

affinity by which every one finds his proper 
place and function. This makes harmony and 
order. It is a government of mutual love, 
which love is exercised by every one in his 
proper and most delightful use. This love of 
use is supreme, and banishes all love of rule on 
the one hand and all envy on the other. There 
is no occasion for pride in one of higher place, 
no occasion for a sense of humiliation in one of 
lower place. There are no arbitrary appoint- 
ments to office, no ambitious office-seekers. 

Yet it is said by Swedenborg, that in heaven 
there must be a distinct governing function 
because heaven is composed of societies whose 
members, though all in similar good, are not in 
similar wisdom. That is, there must be a unit- 
ized or centered wisdom for the guidance of a 
society as a whole. Each society must have a 
head for matters which pertain to its general or 
public concerns. But this arrangement, too, is 
organic, or the outworking of " natural law in 
the spiritual world, " as shown by his statement 
that only those are exalted to governorships 
whose hearts are especially in the public welfare. 

In the celestial kingdom of heaven, says 
Swedenborg, the government is called Justice ; 
and this is because all who are in that kingdom 



80 Death and the Future State. 

are in good as the reigning principle. The 
government there is of the Lord alone, who in- 
wardly leads and teaches. Matters of judgment, 
such as are discussed in the spiritual kingdom, 
never come into dispute there, but only matters 
of justice, which pertain to life; because there 
the truths of judgment are inscribed upon their 
hearts, and every one knows and perceives them. 
Upon matters of justice, those who have wisdom 
from the Lord interrogate those who have more. 
In the spiritual kingdom the government is 
called judgment, and is administered according 
to understood divine laws. All in this king- 
dom are under truth as the reigning principle, 
and their love of truth results in the good of 
the community. They too are led or governed 
of the Lord, but mediately through the truth, 
and hence through governors of a more intellec- 
tual and formal kind than are the governors 
in the celestial kingdom. Each society has its 
own peculiar form of government, according to 
its peculiar function in the grand body, but all 
the forms agree in the respect that they regard 
the public good, and thence the good of every 
individual, as their end. The governors lead 
the people in civil matters, and provide how 
that shall be done which is for the public good ; 



Life in Heaven. 81 

they do not command but serve the people, who 
have only to see the truth and the way before 
joyfully accepting and doing. The governors 
do not make themselves greater than others, but 
less ; for they have the good of society in the 
first place, and their own in the last. They 
have honor and glory ; they dwell in the midst 
of the societies, and in magnificent palaces; but 
they do not accept this honor and glory for 
themselves, but for the sake of the common 
regard for what is of the Lord. 

There is also, in the spiritual kingdom, a 
similar government, in the least form, in every 
household. There is a master or head, and 
there are servants; but the relation is under- 
stood as one of mutual service and love. It is 
again the relation of members and organs of the 
human body, though the body here is smaller. 

HEAVENLY FREEDOM. 

Every one in heaven is in freedom in a 
higher sense than that in which we usually 
understand the word. It is a freedom which is 
from the Lord, and this is a truer freedom than 
that which is from one's self. Freedom in self- 
love is the freedom of disorder; but freedom in 
love to the Lord and fellow-man is the freedom 
6 



82 Death and the Future State. 

of heavenly law and order, and consequently of 
heavenly bliss. There is on earth a desire to 
be free in the love and practice of evil and fal- 
sity, but this freedom is bondage under a law 
that punishes for every indulgence; the true 
freedom is that which is attained by obedience 
to the laws of human well-being. " If the truth 
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." In the 
true freedom every one is a center of blessedness 
to all, and all are a center of blessedness to him ; 
and one who is in this freedom must be in- 
stantly seized with pain if he even think of that 
which the sensualist or the worldly schemer 
calls freedom. 

But there is nothing in this conception of 
heavenly freedom in heavenly order, that can 
favor submission to any powers that are not of 
God. It is the freedom of loyalty to truth and 
justice as seen and loved, and this freedom can 
have nothing in common with loyalty to a 
government that is false to these principles. 

It must be remembered that over no heavenly 
society, even in the spiritual kingdom, is a gov- 
ernor appointed or chosen who is foreign to 
them ; he is one of their own people by genius 
and belief, his only distinction being his peculiar 
fitness for his place, and his consequent superior 



Life in Heaven. 83 

ability to unfold the principles of a system in 
which all are established in the most hearty ac- 
cord. 

DIVINE WORSHIP. 

There is also divine worship in heaven, and 
there are temples and preaching. The divine 
worship, however, is not thought to consist in 
attending church, but in a life of doing God's 
will in acknowledgment of Him. The preach- 
ing in the temples, wdiich is from interior light, 
is instruction in matters pertaining to life, and 
is according to accepted doctrines. The preach- 
ers are all from the spiritual kingdom, and 
none from the celestial, because in the celestial, 
where the principle of good is regnant and the 
law is written thence in the heart, there is no 
need that one say to another, " Know the Lord/' 
for all know Him, from the least to the greatest 
of them. In the spiritual kingdom truth or 
doctrine is the medium of good, and must be 
inquired after and taught. The celestials, how- 
ever, do delight in hearing the spiritual preach- 
ing, because it adds something in illustration of 
truths they already know, and is an occasion 
for fuller acknowledgment and love of those 
truths. None in the spiritual kingdom preach 
but they who have the special gift of preach- 



84 Death and the Future State. 

ing, as none govern but they who are the most 
capable of genuine civil public service. There 
is in heaven no such thing as mistaking one's 
calling. The Divine Humanity being every- 
where acknowledged in heaven, and all heaven 
being lovingly submissive to that Humanity, it 
works out its own beneficent order, its own 
peace and harmony, its own ever ennobling and 
fitting uses, its own end of embodying itself in 
the human race. This it will do also upon 
earth when we shall have learned through 
suffering and enlightenment to do the Lord's 
will as it is done in heaven. 

We are told by Swedenborg that the preach- 
ings in the spiritual kingdom are according to 
doctrines, all of which agree in essentials. But 
we must not understand that this means accord- 
ing to dogma, or to a creed authoritatively es- 
tablished. The spiritual angels are a most ques- 
tioning and rational people, and will not one of 
them accept as true anything which he does not 
rationally and clearly understand. But socie- 
ties are composed of members all alike consti- 
tuted, and all freely and continually in similar- 
ity of views, the preacher included. All the 
members are of like genius, and doctrinally 
this genius runs in similar lines. 



Life in Heaven. 85 

NO TIME OR SPACE. 

There is no time or space in heaven. Days 
and years are successions of inward states. Morn- 
ing and spring-time are new states of love and 
wisdom ; evening and autumn are the declin- 
ing of those states. Remoteness or nearness is 
difference or likeness of state. By a mere 
change of state Swedenborg visited the heavens 
and the spirits of other planets while he was 
still in vital connection with his body. They 
are near God who are Godlike, near each other 
who mutually love. The speed of one's ap- 
proach to another is his desire, and his convey- 
ance is wings of thought. In dreams we learn 
a little of how we may live through years, and 
travel long journeys, in a moment of time ; 
men rescued from drowning tell of the light- 
ning rapidity with which their past life is 
unrolled as a scroll before them ; and when one 
is engaged in anything unusually delightful, 
how the time goes by unheeded ! 



ONE LANGUAGE. 

As confusion of tongues on earth came 
through impiety and wickedness, we naturally 
expect to find but one language in heaven. In 



86 Death and the Future State. 

the universal heaven, says Swedenborg, there is 
but one language ; all understand each other, 
whatever society they are from. But that lan- 
guage is not learned ; it is inherent in every 
one. It flows out as a natural expression of 
the affection and thought. And the sound of 
speech corresponds to the affection. The deeper 
and truer the affection to eternity, the more 
musical and mightily tender the voice; which 
reminds us of that other statement of Sweden- 
borg, that the heavenly state is one of eternal 
approach toward the fountain of youth. Every 
affection distributes itself into its own proper 
form of thought, and that form of thought 
gives forth its proper sound. One knows the 
character of another from his speech alone. It 
is no artificial language such as we have to 
struggle with, from our infancy, to learn and 
remember. It is quickly developed after en- 
trance into the spiritual world, for it is our 
spirit's native tongue. It waits now in our 
interior intellect. 

The celestial angels are even more gentle and 
soul-touching in their expressions than are the 
spiritual, because they are more in the fountains 
of the life of thought and speech. Swedenborg 
speaks of a certain hard-hearted spirit who had 



Life in Heaven. 87 

never wept until an angel conversed with him. 
Then he could not but weep, for he said it was 
love speaking. 



*^mt^ 



|>>HS^r- 



CHAPTER VII. 
SEX AND MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN. 

If angels are all from the human race, if the 
human male and female are different in mental 
as well as physical constitution and function, 
and if the mere transition from the natural to 
the spiritual world makes no magical change, 
then, of course, a man remains a man after 
death and a woman remains a woman. More- 
over, if man and woman were made for each 
other, each to complement what the other lacks, 
thus making of two one full mental and func- 
tional unit, we can see no reason why all in 
heaven should be male, or all female, or all de- 
void of sex. If we could believe either of these 
alternatives, heaven would certainly have little 
attraction for us, offering but a dreary, barren, 
one-sided existence. 

And if heaven is composed of the two sexes, 
why must we not believe in sex unions in 
heaven ? If there is on earth any reason for 
belief in a possibly perfect mating, or even if 



Sex and Marriage in Heaven. 89 

marriage here, as imperfect as it is in a world 
of temporary and widely separated and crude 
existence, is a divine institution, then why 
should we not expect perfect sexual affinity, 
never to be broken, in heaven? If we cannot 
so believe and expect, then we must believe 
that there is no such thing as forming an idea 
of heaven from any laws with which we are 
acquainted. He who opposes the doctrine of 
marriage in heaven must with as little reason 
deny the doctrine of any kind of angelic asso- 
ciation. 

But Jesus said, " In the resurrection they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but 
are as angels in heaven " (Matt. xxii. 30); or, 
" When they shall rise from the dead they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage" 
(Mark xii. 25) ; or, " The children of this world 
marry and are given in marriage ; but they that 
are accounted worthy to attain to that world 
[or age], and to the resurrection of the dead, 
neither marry nor are given in marriage ; for 
neither can they die any more : for they are 
equal to the angels, and are children of God, 
being children of the resurrection." (Luke xx. 
34-36.) 

What he meant by these sayings is seen even 



90 Death and the Future State. 

in some of the literal expressions. " Ye do err, 
Dot knowing the scriptures nor the power of 
God/' said he to the Sadducees in reply to 
their carnal question, " Whose wife shall she 
be of the seven, for they all had her?" They 
knew neither the spiritual meaning of mar- 
riage nor of the resurrection, but Jesus re- 
veals this meaning of the resurrection when 
he says that in the resurrection they are not 
children of this world, but children of God 
and of the resurrection. This is a meaning 
entirely above that of resurrection from the 
grave or even from the body. It is the resur- 
rection of the mind and life from spiritual 
death ; it is attainment to that state (signified 
by u world " or " age ") in which the " worthy " 
are "as the angels of God." In that state of 
spiritual regeneration there is no marrying or 
giving in marriage, for the union of understand- 
ing and will is then completed. And here the 
meaning of marriage is entirely above that of 
the sex union which the question of the Saddu- 
cees conveyed. In everything, Jesus spoke to the 
Jews in a language whose meaning was hidden 
from them, because their hearts were " waxed 
gross and their ears were dull of hearing." He 
may in like manner speak to us if our hearts 



Sex and Marriage in Heaven. 91 

are not pure, our eyes not open, our ears not 
in condition to hear. We become children of 
God, become as the angels, not by dying and 
rising into the spiritual world, but by dying 
unto sin and rising unto righteousness. And 
the question of marriage is not "whose wife 
shall she be ? " but how shall my life be brought 
into perfect union and harmony with my knowl- 
edge of right? Here is the marriage union that 
makes me as the angels, and in that" age" or 
state the union is completed — no more marrying 
or giving in marriage. That belongs to this 
" age " or " this world," or to the stage of attain- 
ing to the spiritual resurrection. 

But besides this marriage of will and knowl- 
edge in every individual, by which he becomes 
an angel, there is also the union of two souls in 
one — a union foreordained from eternity in every 
case. Two souls are made for each other as 
perfect counterparts, and in heaven they realize 
the union by a law of affinity that cannot fail 
of its purpose. This union may not be found 
in the present life, owing to the obstacles of 
time and distance in the way of meeting and 
becoming acquainted, and also owing to our 
carnal mindedness. It may in some degree be 
realized here, and the union be a very happy 



92 Death and the Future State. 

and helpful one ; and they who live faithfully 
and lovingly in it are, in so doing, availing 
themselves of one of the most helpful means of 
becoming angels. Swedenborg says of those 
women in heaven " who have died old and worn 
out with age, and who have lived in faith in 
the Lord, in charity towards the neighbor and 
in happy conjugial love with a husband," that 
" after a succession of years they come more and 
more into the bloom of youth, and into a beauty 
surpassing every conception of beauty formed 
from that which the eye has ever seen. Good- 
ness and charity mould their forms into their 
own likeness, causing the delight and beauty 
of charity to shine forth in every feature, so that 
they are the forms of charity." And the same 
may be said of husbands of like life and char- 
acter. Since marriage is the most intimate pos- 
sible relation, it cannot but affect most interiorly 
the character and life of those who are in it. 
And either polygamy, promiscuous intercourse 
or the desecration of marriage by mercenary 
motive is of all things the most destructive of 
the angel in a human soul. 

The ideal and true marriage is of all things 
the most sacred and beautiful. There is no 
other relation so heavenly, so happy, so intimate 



Sex and Marriage in Heaven. 93 

and vital. The parental and filial relation will 
give way to others, but the true marriage union 
is eternal. " Have } r ou not read, that He who 
made them from the beginning made them male 
and female, and said, For this cause shall a man 
leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to 
his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh ? 
What therefore God hath joined, let not man 
put asunder." 

One of the most transcendently beautiful de- 
scriptions of the true marriage that we have 
ever seen is this one, given by Swedenborg 
("Coirjugial Love," No. 42), of a union in 
heaven : — 

" One morning I was looking up into heaven, 
and I saw over me expanse above expanse ; and 
I saw that the first expanse, which was near, 
opened, and presently the second, which was 
higher, and lastly the third, which was the 
highest; and by illustration thence, I perceived 
that upon the first expanse were angels who 
compose the first or ultimate heaven ; and upon 
the second expanse were angels who compose 
the second or middle heaven ; and upon the 
third expanse were angels who compose the 
third or highest heaven. I wondered at first 
what and why this was; and presently there 
was heard from heaven a voice as of a trumpet, 



94 Death and the Future State. 

saying, We have perceived, and now see, that 
you meditate concerning conjugial love; and we 
know that no one on earth as yet knows what 
love truly conjugial is in its origin and in its 
essence, and yet it is important that this should 
be known ; wherefore it has pleased the Lord 
to open to you the heavens, that illustrating light 
may flow into the interiors of your mind, and, 
therefrom, perception. With us in the heavens, 
especially in the third, our heavenly delights 
are principally from conjugial love; wherefore, 
from leave granted us, we will send down to 
you a pair of consorts that you may see them. 

" And lo ! instantly there appeared a chariot, 
descending from the highest or third heaven, 
in which was seen one angel; but as it ap- 
proached, there were seen therein two. The 
chariot at a distance glittered before my eyes 
like a diamond, and to it were harnessed young 
horses white as snow ; and they who sat in the 
chariot held in their hands two turtle-doves, 
and called out to me, saying, Do you wish us 
to come nearer? but then take heed, lest the 
radiance which is from our heaven whence we 
have descended, and is flaming, penetrate too 
interiorly, by the influx of which the higher 
ideas of your understanding, which are in them- 
selves heavenly, may indeed be illustrated, but 
these ideas are ineffable in the world wherein 
you are: wherefore what you are now about to 
hear, receive rationally, and express it in a 
manner suited to the understanding. 



Sex and Marriage in Heaven. 95 

"And I replied, I will take heed; come 
nearer: and they came, and behold! it was a 
husband and his wife: and they said, We are 
consorts; we have lived blessed in heaven from 
the first age, which is called by you the golden 
age, and in the same perpetual flower of youth 
in which you now see us at this day. I looked 
at each attentively, because I perceived that 
they represented conjugial love in its life and in 
its adornment; in its life in their faces, and in 
its adornment in their vestures; for all angels 
are affections of love in a human form; the 
ruling affection itself shines forth from their 
faces, and from the affection and according to 
it are their garments; wherefore it is said in 
heaven that his own affection clothes every one. 
The husband appeared of a middle age, between 
manhood and youth; from his eyes shone forth 
a light sparkling from the wisdom of love, from 
which light his face was as if interiorly radiant, 
and from this radiance the skin was throughout 
refulgent, whereby his whole face was one re- 
splendent comeliness. He was clad in a long 
robe, and underneath it was a vesture of blue 
girded about with a golden girdle, upon which 
were three precious stones, two sapphires on the 
sides and a carbuncle in the midst. His stock- 
ings were of shining linen, w 7 ith threads of 
silver interwoven, and his shoes w r ere of silk. 
This was the representative form of conjugial 
love with the husband. 

" But with the wife it was this : her face was 



96 Death and the Future State. 

seen by me, and was not seen ; it was seen as 
beauty itself, and it was not seen because this 
beauty was inexpressible; for in her face was a 
splendor of flaming light, such light as the 
angels in the third heaven have, and it made 
my sight dim; so that I stood still with aston- 
ishment. She, observing this, addressed me, 
saying, What do you see? I replied, I see 
nothing but conjugial love and the form thereof, 
but I see and do not see. At this she turned 
herself obliquely from her husband, and then I 
could look upon her more intently: her eyes 
were bright with the light of her own heaven, 
which, as was said, is flaming, and from the 
love of wisdom ; for in that heaven wives love 
their husbands from and in their husband's 
wisdom, and husbands love their wives from 
and in that love towards themselves, and thus 
they are made one. Hence was her beauty, 
which was such that no painter could emulate 
and exhibit it in its form, for his colors have no 
such luster, nor can his art express such beauty. 
Her hair was gracefully arranged in correspon- 
dence with her beauty, and in it were inserted 
flowers in diadems. She had a collar of car- 
buncles, and from it hung a rosary of chryso- 
lites, and her armlets were of pearl. Her upper 
robe wasi scarlet, and underneath it she wore a 
purple bosom-vest, which was clasped in front 
with rubies. But what I wondered at was, that 
the colors varied according to her aspect in re- 
gard to her husband, and also according to it 



Sex and Marriage in Heaven, 97 

were sometimes less, sometimes more glitter- 
ing, — in mutual aspect more, and in oblique 
aspect less. 

" When I had seen these things, they again 
discoursed with me; and when the husband 
spoke, he spoke at the same time as if from his 
wife; and when the wife spoke, she spoke at 
the same time as if from her husband. Such 
was the union of minds from which the speech 
flowed. And then also I heard the tone or 
voice of conjugial love, which inwardly was 
simultaneous with, and also proceeding from, 
the delights of a state of peace and innocence. 

" At length they said, We are recalled, we 
must go away ; and again they appeared to be 
borne in a chariot, as before; and they were 
carried along a paved way through fields of 
flowers, from which sprang up olives, and trees 
laden with oranges ; and when they were near 
their heaven, virgins came to meet them." 




CHAPTER VIII. 

CHILDREN IN HEA VEN. 

Though there are eternal marriage unions in 
heaven, the husband and wife ever renewing 
their youth from the Fountain of Life, yet no 
children are born of those unions, but only a 
progeny of thought-forms and uses, and all those 
representative forms of affection and intelligence 
which constitute the objects of the heavenly 
world. The whole heavenly universe is be- 
gotten of conjugial love; for this love is the 
conjunction of love and wisdom, and is the 
celestial principle itself. It dwells in the 
supreme region in the midst of all mutual love, 
and all mutual love flows from it in creative 
power and wisdom. A most comprehensive as 
well as sacred meaning, therefore, is bound up 
in the word marriage. Marriage originates in 
God, who is Love and Wisdom in one, and 
down through all creation, from man and 
woman to plants that unite for reproduction, 
98 



Children in Heaven. 99 

and to roeks that exist by chemical affinity, it 
is the one divine means of creation and multi- 
plication. 

Children are born only in a material world. 
So have been all the inhabitants of the spiritual 
world, because without brain and nerve neither 
consciousness nor individuality nor spiritual or- 
ganism can be given. Within a natural body 
the spiritual body or voluntary and thinking 
organism begins, and it remains a spiritual body 
or organism after its separation therefrom at 
death. The earthly existence, however short, 
serves also, by its variety of hereditary charac- 
teristics and tendencies and by its variety of 
earthly contact, as a basis for that variety of 
genius and employment which are necessary to 
the happiness of the numberless societies of the 
heavens. 

There are animated forms created in the 
spiritual world, animal, plant and occasionally 
human, but they are only animated forms — 
mere embodiments of inward states of the 
angels or spirits through whom they are created ; 
and they change or cease to exist with change 
or cessation of the states which they image. 

The animals of the spiritual world are not 
there from previous earthly existence. No 



100 Death and the Future State. 

animals from earth enter that world, because 
their souls never open to a life above the earthly 
and temporal. 

All children become angels, but none without 
the necessary training and trials and growth. 
The innocence of intelligence makes angels, and 
children have only the innocence of ignorance. 
There are no " cherubs" — no little angels that 
go from earth and always remain little. All 
angels are men and women in wisdom and 
stature. As ignorant and undeveloped inno- 
cents children are received into heaven at death 
by angel mothers — such women as in their earth- 
life loved the Lord and particularly loved chil- 
dren. These welcome them as their own, and 
care for them with more than a natural mother's 
love and wisdom and skill. An angel mother 
perceives the minutest particulars of a child's 
natural disposition, and leads and teaches it ac- 
cordingly. By the child's delights she insinuates 
into it what is suited to its genius, somewhat as 
its natural mother would provide for it the food 
which was most suitable. Indeed in a spiritual 
world the influences and teachings of the angel 
mother, along with the associations of children, 
are its food and drink. It thirsts for knowledge 
and hungers for love. The knowledge is given 



Children in Heaven. 101 

by object-lessons, which in that world are per- 
fect correspondences or significatives of the 
ideas to be awakened. As one instance of the 
way children in their simple innocence are led 
to good by things which delight them, a com- 
pany of them was seen by Swedenborg, along 
with their instructresses, about to enter a garden 
whose paths led to interior recesses. They were 
elegantly clad with flowers around their breasts 
and arms, the flowers resplendent with heavenly 
colors; and as they entered the garden the 
flowers above the entrance shot forth a most 
joyful radiance. Thus was taught them that 
divine revelation and blessing came with their 
advancing footsteps toward the Lord. 

They learn to talk, but not in our stammer- 
ing and artificial way. Their first speech is only 
a sound of affection, but as the affection develops 
in particular directions ideas enter and flow 
forth in varied and distinct expression. First 
they speak of such things as appear before their 
eyes, but eventually of the interior and heavenly 
things signified. When their interior minds 
have sufficiently opened, they are transferred to 
masters in the world of spirits. Here as youth 
they are each prepared for his destined society 
in heaven. Thus their growth into angelhood 



102 Death and the Future State. 

is gradual and orderly. They grow bodily as 
they grow spiritually. They pass through all 
the stages of childhood and youth, mentally and 
bodily, until they attain to adult stature. But, 
like all others in heaven, they never grow old. 
They have their temptations, resulting from 
hereditary tendencies. A certain prince who 
had died in infancy and grown up into angel- 
hood, says Swedenborg, was tempted with the 
false opinion that the good which he possessed 
was from himself and not from the Lord, and 
he had to be let into his inherited evils in order 
to be convinced that there was no good in him- 
self. He then saw that he had a disposition to 
domineer over others and to make light of adul- 
teries. This he had to see and acknowledge 
before he could be received among the angels 
where he was before. Grown-up children in 
heaven are thus at times let into the state of 
their hereditary evil, not to suffer punishment 
for sins never actually committed, but to be con- 
vinced that of themselves they are nothing but 
evil, that it is the Divine alone which keeps 
them out of hell, that they are not in heaven 
by any merit of their own, but of the Lord, and 
to be cured of all boasting of their goodness 
before others, which is as contrary to the prin- 



Children in Heaven. 103 

ciple and practice of mutual love as it is to 
religious doctrine. 

And even little children have temptations to 
resist. A choir of little children was heard by 
Swedenborg, their voices tender but confused. 
Some spirits about him were tempting them to 
speak as those spirits wished, and the children 
were resisting with indignation. When they 
could speak freely, they said, u It is not so." 
Thus they are trained not only to resist what is 
false and evil, but also to speak, think and act 
from no one else but the Lord. 

What a valuable hint is here of the way we 
should train our children ! We should not 
make them repeaters of our own views, religious 
or other, and thus mere copyists of ourselves 
or our sect; our proper business is to unfold 
their minds and open their affections to divine 
light, to the right principles of life and conduct, 
and leave them to think and act for themselves 
from the Lord, watching and restraining them 
only to the extent necessary to save them from 
serious harm. 

There is also the very important suggestion, 
that the economic condition of society should 
be such that every natural mother might have 
at hand for her children the resources and time 



104 Death and the Future State. 

necessary to be somewhat an angel mother to 
them ; such that all children might have homes 
that would be dear and sacred to them in after 
years ; such that it might be possible to educate 
them along the lines of their natural delights, 
and to offer them corresponding employments. 

Children develop easily into angels, but this 
is no reason why people should wish to die in 
infancy. Angelhood must be attained to by 
means of various conditions, else there will be 
no various places and uses in the heavens. The 
reason why some people die in infancy and 
others in later life is the same as why people 
are born at different times and in different lines 
of descent. The time of death, like the time 
and antecedents of birth, is an element in the 
variety of individuality and use which is neces- 
sary to a heavenly world. They who die adults 
have acquired and carry with them from the life 
of experience, activity, temptation and struggle 
in the world a plane of development which the 
infant has not. This exterior development be- 
comes eventually quiescent in the other life, but 
yet it forever remains a basis for interior men- 
tality, giving a robustness that the angel grown 
up in heaven from infancy can never have. 
The state of those who live to adult age on 



Children in Heaven, 105 

earth may become just as perfect as that of 
infants who grow up in heaven, provided they 
remove selfish and worldly loves for spiritual 
loves — but yet with a difference. Infants in 
heaven do not even know that they were born 
in the world, and consequently know only the 
new birth, which they are taught and which they 
experience. They know but the one Father, 
and in their infantile innocence readily acknowl- 
edge Him alone as their life and wisdom and 
goodness and delight. They have no acquired 
and confirmed falsities or evils or self-will or 
vanity to oppose truth or righteousness, and 
they need only to be let occasionally into their 
inherited tendencies to see that they are not 
good of themselves but of the Lord. Their life 
is almost a perpetual delight, and develops into 
angelhood with comparatively little struggle. 
From the innocence of ignorance they grow 
easily and rapidly into the innocence of wisdom. 
They enter either the third or the second 
heaven, according as they are celestial or spirit- 
ual in genius, the two classes being distinguished 
in that the former act with more softness, so 
that scarcely anything of self is manifest to 
obstruct the flow of divine love through them 
to others, whilst the latter are more self-con- 



106 Death and the Future State. 

scious and flattering in their movements and 
may on occasion show feelings of indignation. 
The former are open to the love heaven, the 
latter to the truth heaven. The adult may also 
enter either of these heavens, but there will be 
between him and the grown-up infant angel the 
difference which comes of a longer life of 
temptation and struggle and other mental ex- 
perience and activity in the flesh. 

We might complain of these differences be- 
tween infants and adults, and even between 
infants themselves, but the complaint would 
arise from ignorance of the need of variety in 
God's instruments for making full and sweet 
the harmony of the eternal world. Some 
spirits, whether having died in infancy or adult 
life, must be higher than others in the sphere 
of divine innocence, whence to act by more 
interior and gentle ways for the good of heaven 
and earth and hell ; and others must have from 
genius and acquirement the benefit of a more 
exterior plane of mind by which to act in more 
exterior ways. 



CHAPTER IX. 
" THE VISION OF JOSEPH." 

We have before us a book entitled " The 
Vision of Joseph," "showing the future pro- 
gression of the spirits in prison." Its author is 
Joseph R. Jackson, of Union City, Indiana. It 
is a narration of his experiences, and "not a 
romance written to advance a theory or teach a 
doctrine." The descriptions are given in detail, 
and evidently at first hand, and with a desire 
for the truth for the benefit of humanity. The 
book is published by The Society of Silent 
Worship, in Washington, D. C, under date, 
" First month, 8th, 1898." 

Joseph's father had visions during life, and 
when he was about to die he said to Joseph, 
" If you ever think you see me after I am gone, 
do not be afraid ; I may come to see what, you 
are doing. God is good ; He will care for you. 
He will tell you where to go and what to do, if 
you will trust Him ; and it may be His will 
sometimes to use me in teaching you." 
107 



108 Death and the Future State. 

Joseph's first remarkable vision came to him 
when confined to his bed and very weak and 
emaciated from an injury in the hip. His father 
appeared to him one night, and gently touching 
his forehead and passing his hand over his face, 
told him that he would soon be better ; but that 
he must have his hip lanced, sleep only fifteen 
minutes at a time, and take a certain kind of 
refreshment at certain intervals. The directions 
were followed, and he recovered. 

He became a soldier in our Civil War, and 
lost many friends, among them " George/' who, 
when dying on the field near Vicksburg, prom- 
ised that if it should be possible from the other 
side to help him, he would do so. Especially 
did he receive inspiration from a very dear 
deceased woman friend, a Quaker, when, in 
1861, he had returned home from the West 
Virginia campaign, very sick of typhoid fever. 
She appeared to him, telling him that it was 
not his time to die, for there was too much need 
of brave and true hearts in this world. 

During the last days of the war he received 
a nervous shock from the explosion of a shell, 
on account of which, in the seventies, he went 
for some months to a sanitarium in one of the 
central States; and it was there that the most 



"The Vision of Joseph:' 109 

of the visions given in the book were experi- 
enced. 

At the foot of a grassy slope a river appeared, 
and a boat, which was approaching, without 
sound of oar, from the further side. The oars- 
man was black as a negro, and the helmsman 
wore the uniform of a soldier. The latter was 
George, the former " the powder-monkey on 
the old Admiral's flag-ship." They came in 
that way in order to be recognized. Joseph 
was about to step into the boat, but was told 
that they had not come for him, but would take 

F over, and then, in the spring, just before 

the flowers bloomed, they would come again 

and take Mr. D . Joseph would get well. 

These predictions proved true. 

Soon after, the vision reappeared, and then 
George said, " Perhaps you can go, to gather 
some information for people on earth." George 
had been a dozen years in the other life, busy 
moving about, doing good, and making progress 
in spiritual condition. He had found that he 
grew by helping others, and his help had been 
directed to the earth-bound spirits — those who 
linger long near the earth because too ignorant 
or too wilfully gross in thought to move for- 
ward. " We have our pastimes," he said ; " our 



110 Death and the Future State. 

schools, our places of training, our sanitariums 
for the spiritually infirm, our times of great 
gatherings, our festivals. Most of the people 
you would first see appear very low down in 
life, and it is those who are disposed to sap the 
life and morals of those on earth who are open 
to their influence." 

Just then George saw Joseph's father beck- 
oning, and invited Joseph to step into the boat; 
and the boat carried them over, George singing 
a song of praise to the Highest. 

Joseph met his father, who gave him words 
of instruction, a part of which was that the 
Highest is found within one's inner self, and 
is the Innermost, and that from this Highest 
u comes the invitation that helps us on." But 
the father left him with another guide when 
they came near the first aggregate of individuals, 
for his services were more valuable elsewhere. 
It seemed to be a very low grade of people that 
he was come to, but all had more good than 
they seemed to have, and all acknowledged the 
justness of their state. Always near were those 
who could help them upward, and the guide 
said that the loving thought and prayer of 
friends on earth often encouraged them to face 
about and reach out for better conditions. 



11 The Vision of Joseph." Ill 

Through Joseph's mind passed queries, one 
after another, which had often arisen in regard 
to persons of certain habits of life, and for 
answers there came successively such illustra- 
tions of cases as the following. 

A had been a man of great capabilities 

and most affable manners, born of a long-lived 
family. But he had become dissipated, and con- 
sequently died from accident in the prime of 
life. He appeared upon hands and knees. He 
seemed to carry two conditions, one slowly de- 
creasing, the other as slowly increasing. In 
the silent language of that realm, there came 
from him these words : — 

"I should have lived to at least three score 
and ten. By habit I destroyed my personality 
at thirty; forty years of work and opportunity 
for gaining knowledge thrown away to gratify 
an appetite! But death does not cancel earth- 
life's obligations and duties; so here I work out 
in a mentally and spiritually crippled condition, 
as you see, the unfinished work, or its equiva- 
lent. I am growing, and am grateful every 
hour for w r hat may seem to you a sad existence, 
and thank the Highest that Divine Justice is 
just, and that I am in the hands of an Infinite, 
Loving Father, w r ho is good and doeth only 
good. From the teaching of my early life I 



112 Death and the Future State. 

expected an endless torment for one little human 
weakness. I should joy to communicate with 
earth-life, and to impress there the sacred uses 
of life, and the grave responsibility one assumes 
in forming habits that endanger life or sap the 
life forces. Even in my present state I am 
happy in the thought that Infinite Love calls 
me on. Do you hear it? 'Come, come, come; 
whosoever will, let him come/ I am coming; 
yes, I am coming by and by." 

A white dove alighted on a tower near by, 
and on its wiugs, in letters of gold, were the 
words, " God is love." 

So Joseph, with his guide, resumed his 
journey in tears, until they came to another. 

B had been a man who was classed 

" among the most wealthy and enterprising 
citizens, and as a great worker in his church." 
He had determined in early life to be rich, 
creditably if he could, but by any means within 
the law. When butter was high, during the 
war, he made his children eat salted lard on 
their bread, and it gave them complexions like 
tallow candles. He soon had money to lend, 
and by a high rate of interest and foreclosure 
of mortgages robbed people whose distress had 
compelled them to borrow. By evading assess- 
ments he saved enough tax money to erect a 



"The Vision of Joseph." 113 

block of buildings; yet when a cruelly treated 
boy had sold him a forged note upon the boy's 
father to get money to flee from home, he sent 
the boy to state prison, and blackened his whole 
life. He foreclosed on a poor man's lot, and 
took it on his own terms. The church of which 
he w T as a member, then wanted the lot, and had 
to pay him twice the cost, but he subscribed 
half the price to induce other men to give to 
the church more than they could afford to give. 
The poor man who had owned the lot asked 
him to divide with him the profit on the sale, 
but being answered that division had been made 
with the church, said, "Damn the church that 
accepts such money, and pretends that it comes 
in Christ's name!" "It was thought that he 

went to perdition when he died," said B ; 

" but as long as I have been here, and as much 
as the Highest has permitted me to grow, I have 
never been able to reach the plane where they 
tell me that poor man and that forger boy are 
found." 

Once, on reaching home, B had met at 

his door a man w T hom he had hired to clean his 
damp cellar. The man w T as muddy all over, 
wet to the skin, and shivering with cold. Asked 
the bill, he replied, " One dollar." B pro- 



114 Death and the Future State. 

tested, and then paid him fifty cents. Said the 
mud-smeared man, " If my wife and children 
could have a supper without this, I'd throw it 
with curses at your feet." A few days after- 
ward the poor man died of pneumonia, not 
having the means of proper treatment. The 
fifty cents kept back went to a foreign mis- 
sionary fund, but sent the poor home heathen 
to the spirit-world before his time. Jack, the 
mud-slinger, knew little of God or of God's 
love; but he loved, down deep in his rough 
nature, his wife and babies, and through them 
he loved others, and so loved the Father. " But 

when I first came here," continued B , 

"with church prayers following me, I had been 
so deaf and blind to all love, all mercy and 
justice, in earth-life, that I found myself both 
deaf and blind, spiritually, here; so the call of 
the Highest we now hear did not reach me for 
many a long day. Being deprived of my body 
and wealth, I was poor indeed — utterly empty. 
There can be no hell of torment equal to that 
of being without love. I thought I was dying 
from want of soul sustenance, as poor Jack had 
died from bodily want. I had no harmony in 
earth-life; hence could bring none over. Some 
one called me. It was Jack, the mudslinger. 



"The Vision of Joseph." 115 

He seemed happy, and asked what he could do 
for me. Glancing at myself, I seemed to be 
covered with mud, and so poor and weak! 
' O Jack/ I cried, ' you can help me to every- 
thing; I have nothing/ He replied, ' I can of 
myself do nothing; but the Highest will help. 
Come, face the other way. Don't look toward 
earth-life; look to the Highest/ I did so, and 
caught the first glint of gold on the hills, and 
heard the call of the Highest, ( Come, come, 
come; whosoever will, let him come and par- 
take of the water of life freely/ 

"'Does "whosoever" mean me, Jack?' I 
asked. And Jack answered, 'Yes, the Master 
calleth for thee/ 

"So I have been growing ever since; line 
upon line, precept upon precept, I gather in the 
truth. If I had but one message to send back 
to earth-life, it would be to those who profess 
to follow the Master and yet serve Mammon 
instead of their fellow-men." 



*~^ f i^ i '^^^^^^^' , ^<^ 



CHAPTER X. 
"LIGHT ON THE HIDDEN WAY." 

" Light on the Hidden Way " is the title of 
a book of 133 pages, published by Houghton, 
Mifflin & Company, Boston, and containing an 
introduction from the pen of James Freeman 
Clarke. 

Mr. Clarke says of the author, whose name 
is withheld, that she has never been in any way 
connected with so-called " Spiritualism," nor 
acquainted with any of the professional mediums, 
and so has made an independent report. He 
also testifies that she " is regarded by many 
intelligent and cultivated men and women, who 
are her personal friends, as sincere, truthful 
and conscientious." 

The story is one of her own experience. It 
relates mostly to those departed ones who in 
the earth-life had missed their way upward, and 
needed encouragement and help from those still 
in the body. It is instructive and credible, and 
its tone and influence cannot be other than up- 
lifting and helpful. 

116 



"Light on the Hidden Way" 1 17 

In her own preface are these words, indi- 
cating what the reader will find throughout the 
book, — the nearness and mutual dependence of 
the people of the two worlds : — 

"No longer is the dwelling of Eternal Life 
too bright above, and the perishable world too 
dark below. No more strangers and exiles, but 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house- 
hold of God. For Thou hast made one family, 
there and here, one living communion of seen 
and unseen." 

She had, since her earliest childhood, been a 
seer of visions, and it was years before it oc- 
curred to her that every one had not the gift. 
As illustrating the naturalness of her experience, 
she says that when she was a little child she 
once ran after her mother (deceased when the 
child was a baby), thinking to overtake her. 
The appearance of her mother was like moon- 
light, and this gave her the impression that her 
mother lived in the moon. "I often wake to 
find her sitting by my bedside, especially when 
I am in pain or trouble. Once she reproved 
me for my mood, and bade me read a poem, 
telling me what to find it in, the page and the 
author." The eyes of her father (also in the 
other world) have seemed to be constantly upon 



118 Death and the Future State. 

her. Once, when she was about ten years old, 
she had slighted her sweeping because she was 
in haste to go out, and her father, standing on 
a rug, bade her lift up the edge of it, and then 
charged her to remember that no act or thought 
is hidden, and that every slighted duty is a sin 
against the ideal life. 

Ghost stories did not suggest to her mind, as 
to others, either earthly or spirit-world people, 
but only the absurd idea of reanimated dead 
bodies going about to frighten people. On a 
dark and blustering night, having been asked 
if she were not afraid to go home from a neigh- 
bor's alone, she replied that she was not ; but 
really feeling timid and uncertain of her way, 
when she had started, there appeared a little 
light beside her, and in it a baby who had gone 
the year before. He kept just before her till 
she opened the front door of her home, and then, 
with the sweetest smile, he was gone. 

Later in life the child of a friend stood beside 
her. He often visited her, though she had 
never seen him in his earth-life. They spoke 
of his mother, and of the author's own baby. 
Stroking his lovely hair, she asked him for a 
curl to send to his mamma, and actually tried 
to sever it with a pair of scissors. But as they 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 119 

touched the hair, " he dropped his eyes with an 
amused, quizzical smile, and laughed outright 
at my look of dismay that the curl did not 
come/' 

When she began to realize that her experi- 
ence was unlike those about her, she learned to 
speak less freely of it. But there was always 
the inward protest, " Quench not the Spirit." 
So her life was a struggle. " I feel as if walk- 
ing with those born blind," she says, " who 
cannot comprehend the beauty of sunshine and 
sweet faces." It was very strange to her that 
those who professed to believe in the immortal 
life, and in the Bible, where it is said that as- 
cending and descending angels hold converse 
with men, should be averse to the idea of con- 
tinual communication between the two worlds, 
and receive with coldness and unfaith the assur- 
ance that a friend called dead is keenly alive, 
and at times with them. One afternoon, while 
sitting with a bereaved mother who was lament- 
ing the death of her little girl, who at the time 
was on her knee caressing her most tenderly, she 
spoke of the comfort of believing that the little 
one was still with her; but the mother shrank 
from the idea of a " disembodied spirit," and 
clung for comfort to a future resurrection day. 



120 Death and the Future State. 

Asked by a correspondent if they in the other 
life look like ghastly shadows, she writes : — 

" No. And yet their conditions are so vari- 
ous that one might as easily describe in one term 
what flowers in their infinite variety of color 
and texture look like. Some appear as if still 
in the flesh, so that I have sometimes been 
puzzled ; others appear to have become de- 
formed, or almost animal ; and then there are 
those with shining garments, and an atmosphere 
that suggests cathedral music, and sunshine 
streaming through stained glass." As to clothes, 
"some seem still to cling to the latest fashions, 
while the more spiritual are clad in flowing 
robes of light of various hues and degrees of 
purity." 

She had a great love for churches, and in them 
frequently saw double congregations. Some- 
times the altar was beautifully decked with 
flowers, and the air filled with exquisite music, 
unseen and unheard by the worshipers; or there 
would be an intensely white light filling the 
church, or descending upon the sincerely prayer- 
ful. Once, where the congregation was that of 
an unpopular sect, and small, but spiritual and 
earnest, there appeared three human forms 
below the arched ceiling, bending over the 
bowed worshipers, — one a woman, and two like 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 121 

the old patriarchs. Then a more radiant form 
joined them, paused, and looked upward in ex- 
pectation. The white light grew more brilliant, 
and then a shining one came, with such over- 
powering glory that the expectant form raised 
his hand as if to veil his face. The tableau 
remained thus, the ineffable light streaming over 
the congregation, until the close of the prayer. 

At a funeral she would see the departed one 
beside the mourners, and wonder that their grief 
seemed to prevent their seeing him. When the 
casket was lowered, the vault seemed full of 
light and flowers. 

She describes her gift as entirely independent 
of the physical senses. Darkness and sunlight, 
the roar of the city streets and the stillness of 
her chamber, are alike immaterial conditions. 
Nor is it only the departed. "Often where I 
have felt indifference or even prejudice in those 
I meet in the flesh, I have been touched and 
rebuked by the unexpected loveliness of the 
inner man or woman; and I have felt as often 
shocked to find others dark and repulsive whom 
I should like to respect." 

She had her varying states of joy and des- 
pondency, peace and trouble. One evening, 
after playing "Coronation" on the piano, she 



122 Death and the Future State. 

was^ enjoying the sunset from the bay-window, 
and was unusually bright and peaceful. Then 
her father stood beside her, saying that her hap- 
piness was merely a result of a calm and restful 
day ; that she had been good only as she had 
been in her sleep the night before. Should the 
next day be one of trial, would he find her con- 
quered or conqueror, troubled or at peace? 
There was a deeper peace than that which came 
from the absence of temptation. It was only 
through self-denial, discouragement, discipline 
and trial that she could attain to the higher life. 
Spiritual powers were developed by exercise and 
use. There was no virtue in being patient if 
patience was never tried, or in being cheerful if 
there was no temptation to be gloomy. She 
would fail sometimes, but should see to it that 
she rose from every fall with a renewed spirit 
and stronger will, determined to win a blessing 
from every foe. There was no legacy like the 
example of a holy life. 

At another time a venerable man, beautiful 
in presence, came, and reminded her of the sub- 
tle and far reaching influence of a life, and said 
that her judgment would be to meet her own 
failures and the influence of the same upon 
those about her, — the effects, perhaps, in some 
cases, having to be faced for generations. 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 123 

Many were the wholesome and beautiful les- 
sons she thus received. 

Her father told her that the " so-called Spirit- 
ualist has no conception of spirituality. Instead 
of spiritualizing the present, he materializes the 
future, placing it upon his level instead of rever- 
ently striving to rise to ours. There is also a 
loss of the sense of the Divine Presence — the 
highest and purest communion. He is apt to 
be less conscientious than those who feel less 
assurance, and utterly fails to realize the respon- 
sibility of life. . . The true Spiritualist is 
one whose life is sanctified by the Spirit, — a 
perpetual consecration. You have Jesus for 
your Ideal. He said, 1 1 sanctify myself/ 
After his death, when his disciples were assem- 
bled at the familiar meal, so fraught with tender 
associations, he appeared in their midst, — not to 
hold a seance, to lift a table, or tell them of the 
life to come, but simply to impress his teach- 
ings upon them and fill their lives with peace; 
to breathe upon them his holy spirit and charge 
them to be faithful to the light they had received. 
Nor do you find them waiting in the dark for 
him to come again, but working, through trial 
and persecution, to advance the coming of his 
kingdom. This is the only true Spiritualism." 



124 Death and the Future State. 

After losing her own little child, the waters 
of her soul were so ruffled for a season as sel- 
dom to reflect her heavenly lights. She began 
to doubt the reality of her visions and even the 
fact of a future life. Has all been hallucina- 
tion ? The universe, with its evils, and with its 
innocent ones suffering for its guilty, seemed 
more a vast pitiless machine than a creation for 
working out the beneficent will of Divine Provi- 
dence. Worship became impossible. But her 
father was sometimes with her still, and reasoned 
with her against descending into a hell of despair 
and misery. She must return to her sunny faith 
and develop her gift in usefulness to others. 
Once, when he told her that spiritual things are 
spiritually discerned, and could never be demon- 
strated to her satisfaction except through an act 
of faith, she replied, " Tell me where and how 
you live, and what your homes are like. Could 
I understand the laws and conditions of your 
life growth, it might be easier to believe." 
Then, with a tender and half-amused smile, he 
said : " You could not understand me if I told 
you. As you develop your spiritual nature and 
come up into this high school, you will find it 
gradually unfolding to your understanding. 
We do not come to tell you startling facts or to 
relieve you of your responsibilities." 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 125 

After reading about half the book, the reader 
will see that the deep, dark trials through which 
she passed, and the lessons which she received, 
were such as to fit her for what became her chief 
mission in subsequent life — that of helping 
earth-bound spirits. 



The author passes through her last dark trial 
of doubt and questioning. 

Resting on a sofa, she felt that everything 
was drifting away from her, and became con- 
scious of only cold and darkness. Glimpses of 
light came, then distinguishable forms, each 
clothed in white light. She alone was sur- 
rounded by darkness. Recognizing her father, 
she asked if she were dying. Not replying 
directly, he told her that the light which sur- 
rounded and pervaded all the forms she beheld 
was the divine grace which persistently she was 
shutting out of her life, because she could not 
explain satisfactorily to herself the peculiar 
conditions of her special temperament. 

Then she was made to see her little room in 
her childhood home, and the kneeling form of 
her girl-self surrounded with a lovely light, in 
which was a face full of sweetness, trust and 



126 Death and the Future State. 

peace. "See what we hoped you might be- 
come! " were the words she heard. Then a far 
more radiant form appeared, with extended 
hands that seemed to be drawing all men and 
women from a depth of darkness below into 
the clear light of heaven, — their faces turned to 
hers, and growing peaceful and satisfied as they 
advanced. And he said to her, "Look well at 
this picture. Shall it be the prophecy of your 
future, or the warning of a lost opportunity? 
Light is given you; but you cling to darkness, 
and are wilfully deaf and dumb." 

Again she asked how she could be sure that 
it was not a freak of morbid imagination or 
some brain disturbance; and immediately dark- 
ness and cold returned, and she began to wonder 
if she were really dead and cast into outer dark- 
ness. After a long time there was a flickering 
and faint light, appearing and disappearing as 
if struggling to penetrate her darkness. It 
was the light she had seen about her baby. 
Then, melted in an agony of remorse, she sank 
upon her knees, all resistance gone. The dark- 
ness passed, and her father was in view, holding 
her darling in his arms. He counseled her to 
pray against doubt, to begin now the eternal 
life of trustful consecration and sanctified ser- 



"Light on the Hidden Way:' 127 

vice, consciously drawing her innermost life 
from God. He impressed upon her the inesti- 
mable value of her gift, the importance of using 
it, and the necessity of her own soul's illumina- 
tion before she could help others. This was her 
effective call. 

Of the following eight years of her life no 
report is made in her book. But in passing a 
certain house, during the ninth year, she met 
almost daily its former owner, still lingering 
about the premises. He had been a physician, 
and very popular on account of his social quali- 
ties. She had known him slightly while he 
lived in the body. Earth-bound souls may 
make themselves very disagreeable if allowed a 
recognition, and he was always watching for 
her coming. She felt so much annoyed as some- 
times to go out of her way to avoid him. But 
knowing him to have been exceedingly courteous 
in his earth-life, she felt that he was incapable 
of intentionally giving annoyance, and she recog- 
nized him. This seems to have been the begin- 
ning of her work among these mistaught and 
erring ones. 

He had been seeking her interest and sym- 
pathy, but would not intrude himself upon her, 
though he knew all along that she had seen him. 



128 Death and the Future State. 

He was lonely and miserable; had companion- 
ship but did not care for it; preferred to roam 
about his old home and to live in its associa- 
tions, though he was pained because his wife 
knew not of his presence but thought of him as 
happy in a far-off heaven. 

Our author urged him to leave the earth 
atmosphere and rise into a higher life, where the 
stimulus of work is even more urgent than here. 

He could not see what there was for a doctor 
to do there, where there were no frail or dis- 
eased bodies. He was waiting for the judg- 
ment-day, to know whether he should be among 
the lost or saved. He had been a church-goer 
from habit and a sense of propriety, but had 
enjoyed society and the abundance of good 
things he had, and had never thought seriously 
of religious matters, though he had died pro- 
fessing faith in the Redeemer. Now things 
seemed turned upside down. Some whom he 
had thought unbelievers were so radiant with 
spiritual light that he could not endure their 
presence, and many good church-members were 
quite the opposite. 

Little impression was made upon him at first, 
though our author tried to make him under- 
stand that all days are judgment-days, that he 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 129 

need not wait, that the dwarfing of his spiritual 
nature by living for the physical life alone was 
his present judgment, that we are saved by holy 
lives and not by vicarious atonement, that the 
Christ and his Christlike disciples are living and 
at work increasing the kingdom of righteous- 
ness, and that though he could no longer heal 
sick bodies he could work to save souls. 

He was offended — " was not intended to be a 
minister." 

He never walked beyond the limits of his 
own grounds, but became each day more eager 
to see and converse with our author. She tried 
to get him to accompany her to church, but 
without avail. She spoke of the sermon and 
music as likely to help him. Then she invited 
him to an evening reading-circle at her home. 
He would not promise, though there were signs 
of his yielding. He did come — entered gloomily 
into the room and took a seat beside her. No 
special welcome or notice was extended to him, 
for he was greatly depressed, but the singing 
and reading went on. Before leaving, he was 
moved to thank her for the privilege of atten- 
dance, saying that he had not liked hymns or 
sermons but was just beginning to understand 
what was meant by " spiritual food." 
9 



130 Death and the Future State. 

Next afternoon he ventured off the premises 
to meet her, and she tried to induce him not to 
go back to them. He would not promise, but 
wanted to attend another of the reading meet- 
ings. Selections were made at next meeting to 
suit his mood and need, and Whittier's " An- 
swer w was the last read. He was deeply stirred, 
and seemed to have made some strong resolve. 
Two days intervened, and he came again to the 
reading, evidently trying to spare his helper the 
knowledge of what he was suffering. It requires 
great force of will to leave the earth atmosphere, 
with its old associations, and the presence of 
bright spiritual things is unendurable. The life 
lies all uncovered in the light, though it is only 
by the purifying touch of that light that the soil 
and stain can be removed. But freedom of will 
remains ever inviolable, and help and forgive- 
ness are heaven's free gifts. 

He came every night to the reading-circle, 
and also for a half hour in the morning. 

One morning his helper was early in her 
place at the church, as she had been directed. 
In that unveiled church of which we have 
spoken, she beheld the service going on. The 
speaker, after the discourse, stood in the chancel 
waiting, while the congregation remained kneel- 



"Light on the Hidden Way." 131 

ing, with bowed heads. Then came the doctor 
reverently down the aisle, kneeled before the 
radiant preacher, received his blessing, then 
looked upward with an indescribable expres- 
sion of strength and peace. Then there was 
chanting by the heavenly choir, and the doctor 
arose clad in a new robe of righteousness, his 
face full of peace and victory. 
So she had helped one through. 



^*3@**^ 



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APPENDIX. 



APPEARANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL 
WORLD. 

The spiritual world in its external appear- 
ance is altogether similar to the natural world. 
Land, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, 
lakes, rivers and springs, and so all things be- 
longing to the mineral kingdom, appear there 
as in the natural world. Also paradises, gar- 
dens, groves and forests containing trees and 
shrubs of every kind, with their fruits and 
seeds ; besides plants, flowers, herbs and 
grasses; and therefore all that belongs to the 
vegetable kingdom. Animals appear there also, 
and birds and fishes, of every kind ; therefore 
all that belongs to the animal kingdom. Man 
is there an angel or a spirit. 

This is premised that it may be known that 
the universe of the spiritual world is precisely 
like that of the natural, with this only differ- 
132 



Appendix. 133 

ence: that its objects are not fixed and limited 
as in the natural world ; for there is nothing 
natural there, but all is spiritual. 

That the universe of that world presents an 
image of man, will be very evident from the 
fact that all the objects just mentioned appear 
there to the life, and exist about an angel and 
the angelic societies as if produced or created 
from them. They do not pass away, but are 
about them permanently. That they are as if 
produced or created from them, is shown by 
their disappearance when an angel goes away, 
or a society changes its place; and by the 
changed aspect of everything around other 
angels who take their place. Then the para- 
dises change their trees and fruits, blooming 
things their flowers and seeds, the fields their 
herbs and grasses ; and the species of animals 
and birds are changed. 

Such things exist and are so changed, be- 
cause they exist according to the affections and 
consequent thoughts of the angels; for they 
are correspondences, and things correspondent 
make one with him to whom they correspond. 
Therefore they are his representative image. 
The image itself is not seen when the things are 
viewed in their forms, but it is when they are 



134 Appendix. 

viewed in their uses. I was permitted to see 
that the angels, when their eyes were opened by 
the Lord and they saw those objects from the 
correspondence of uses, acknowledged and saw 
themselves in them. — Swedenborg, in Divine 
Love and Wisdom, Nos. 321, 322. 



V31 ^^ 



The Bible Student's Series 



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Sent free to any Minister of the Gospel on receipt of ten 

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See Contents of Volume III on next page 



CONTENTS OF VOLUME 111. 



I. Introduction — The Reasonableness of expecting an Improved 
Knowledge of the Scriptures, and a Clearer Perception of the Religion 
which they inculcate, 1. II. The Origin of the Idea of God's Existence 
— the Universality of its Acknowledgment, and the Means for its Per- 
petuation, 25. III. The Soul of Man a Spiritual Body in the Human 
Form, gifted with Immortality, 47. IV. Revelation in all Ages — Its 
Characteristics before the Mosaic Period, and the Letter of the Scrip- 
tures its Final Basis, 77. Y. The Law of Scripture Writing, and in 
what consists its Revelation and Inspiration, 102. VI. Genuine and 
Apparent Truths in the Bible : Specifically those which refer to the 
Divine Character, 133. VII. God's Manifestations to Men, considered 
as Evidence that He is a Divine Person, 164. VIII. Visions and 
Dreams considered as Media through which Divine Revelations have 
been made, 198. IX. Miracles — Their Occasion and Design, 238. X. 
Parables considered as Open Evidence that the Scriptures have an 
Inner Sense, 303. XI. History viewed as a Representation of Divine 
and Spiritual Things, 339. XII. Prophecy — Its Fulfilment to be 
sought for in the Internal States of the Church, rather than in the 
External Circumstances of the World, 375. XIII. The World of 
Spirits a Region between Heaven and Hell — The First Receptacle for 
the Souls of the Deceased, and the Scene of Judgment, 412. XIV. 
Heaven and Hell Interior States of the Human Soul, induced by the Re 
ception or Rejection of the Divine Principles of Love and Wisdom, 443. 

Sent free to any Minister of the Gospel on receipt of ten cents (either 
in money or postage stamps) by THE CONNECTICUT NEW CHURCH 
ASSOCIATION, New Haven, Conn. 



SWEDENBORG PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, 

GERMANTOWN, PA. 



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